Traverse City Record-Eagle

Archive: Friday

November 20, 2009

Outreach program targets Latino farmers

BY LINDSAY VANHULLE

TRAVERSE CITY -- Nobody spoke Spanish at the U.S. Department of Agriculture field office, so the potential farmer waited and left.

A Latino farm manager wants to buy a plot but has trouble navigating a predominantly English-language system.

A migrant family looking to settle in the region plans to rent farmland until they learn enough to acquire a loan for their own.

Robert Gardner-Sandoval knows their stories. These families, and likely others, want to own and operate their own farms instead of labor on someone else's, but they largely have not been successful accessing programs and services that can help.

"A lot of times it's just a miscommunication," said Gardner-Sandoval, a doctoral student at Michigan State University who launched a program to reach them. "They have no one to talk to."

He will participate in an outreach meeting today in hopes of attracting interested potential farmers to learn more about government loans and how to locate available property.

A similar event in September recruited five possible growers, many of whom don't speak English. Likewise, he said, many agencies "are ill-equipped to deal with Latinos."

The USDA offers a variety of loans to farmers, including those just starting out and those considered "socially disadvantaged," a category that includes race and ethnicity.

But "they're a little hard to access at times," said Jim Sluyter, Get Farming project coordinator for the Michigan Land Use Institute. "The paperwork is daunting."

The institute is working with Gardner-Sandoval's program. It offers free or low-cost planning workshops for prospective farmers, a forum listing available property and a matched savings program for land purchases.

The point of the sessions, Sluyter said, is to remove unintended barriers from federal programs and help overcome the challenge of buying property in today's economy.

A beginning farmer, for instance, needs to be in the industry for 10 or fewer years and own a farm 30 percent or less in size than the county median -- 44 acres in Grand Traverse County -- to qualify for a USDA loan.

Individuals can receive up to $300,000 directly from the agency or nearly $1.1 million if working with another lender.

"Farmers that might have been underserved in the past can have an opportunity," said Jim Monroe, a farm loan manager with the USDA's Farm Service Agency, who represents seven northwestern Michigan counties.

"I don't think (language) should be a barrier, but it could very well be."

For more information

A meeting will be held for interested Latino farmers at 3 p.m. today at the Michigan Works conference center, 1209 S. Garfield Ave., Suite C, in Traverse City.

The program will help those interested in starting their own farms learn about government loan programs and how to find available land.

It is run through a Michigan State University program and the Michigan Land Use Institute.

The session is free and translators will be available for participants who don't speak English.

For more information, call Robert Gardner-Sandoval at (517) 927-4503.

Text Only