An examination of Latino/a immigrant farmers as they transition from
farmworkers to farm owners that offers a new perspective on racial
inequity and sustainable farming.
Although the majority of farms in the United States have US-born owners
who identify as white, a growing number of new farmers are immigrants,
many of them from Mexico, who originally came to the United States
looking for work in agriculture. In The New American Farmer,
Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern explores the experiences of Latino/a immigrant
farmers as they transition from farmworkers to farm owners, offering a
new perspective on racial inequity and sustainable farming. She finds
that many of these new farmers rely on farming practices from their home
countries--including growing multiple crops simultaneously, using
integrated pest management, maintaining small-scale production, and
employing family labor--most of which are considered alternative farming
techniques in the United States.
Drawing on extensive interviews with farmers and organizers,
Minkoff-Zern describes the social, economic, and political barriers
immigrant farmers must overcome, from navigating USDA bureaucracy to
racialized exclusion from opportunities. She discusses, among other
topics, the history of discrimination against farm laborers in the
United States; the invisibility of Latino/a farmers to government and
universities; new farmers' sense of agrarian and racial identity; and
the future of the agrarian class system.
Minkoff-Zern argues that immigrant farmers, with their knowledge and
experience of alternative farming practices, are--despite a range of
challenges--actively and substantially contributing to the movement for
an ecological and sustainable food system. Scholars and food activists
should take notice.
