5th Annual Minority and Immigrant Farming Confrence

The Minnesota Food Association, the Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota, and the USDA-Farm Service Agency will jointly co-host the 5^th Annual Minority and Immigrant Farming Conference on February 19 – 20, 2010 at the Auditorium of the Wilder Foundation Office in St. Paul (451 Lexington Parkway North, at the corner of University Ave.). 

 The theme of this year’s event is Growing Profits on Your Small Farm.  We are anticipating about 150 participants, with farmers from many diverse communities including Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian, Burmese, Karen, Bhutan, Kenyan, Somali and Latino.

 I am writing to you to invite you and/or your colleagues to participate or visit the conference. This will be an excellent opportunity for you to meet farmers and people and organizations that work with farmers in your area. This two-day conference has the goal of promoting the success and viability of small and beginning minority and immigrant farmers.   Confirmed keynote speakers are MN State Senator Mee Moua and Lee Pao Xiong, Director of the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University.

The conference is intended to foster partnerships between farmers and community-based organizations, the MN Dept. of Agriculture, the UMN, and USDA agencies for the betterment of minority and underserved farmers that have the greatest needs for sustaining success in their small farm operations.

 I am attaching a copy of the conference brochure for your information. You or your staff or colleagues can register for the conference by linking to https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/362/default.asp?formid=immconf

The conference is free to farmers and a small fee for non-farmers. Walk-ins are welcome, but we prefer people to pre-register so that we can accommodate the correct amount of food.

 If you have any questions, please contact me at glenhill@mnfoodassociation.org or 651 – 433 – 3676, ext 11.