Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Contact: Maria Moreira, UMass Extension
978-815-2199, mmoreira@umext.umass.edu

Massachusetts’ first immigrant farmers reach out to its most recent
Gift of Tractor is a Lifelong Dream for Immigrant Farmers

Immigrant farmers from Southeast Asia will get a big boost in their cultivation of 70 acres of land in Lancaster this weekend when they receive a brand new 50 horsepower Kubota tractor – a gift of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture and Heifer International.

Dedication of the new equipment will take place Saturday, May 3 at Flats Mentor Farm, Seven Bridge Rd, RT 117, Lancaster, (on the field near Bolton Orchards), beginning at 11 a.m. Call 978-815-2199 for directions and further information.

Through this gift, some of America’s earliest immigrant farmers from England are reaching out across the centuries to some of our newest immigrant farmers from the mountains of Laos.

The Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture (MSPA), one of the earliest agricultural societies in the United States, was incorporated in 1792. Among the founding members was Samuel Adams (who hosted the first meeting), later joined by the likes of John Adams (the MSPA president from 1805 to 1813), John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Artemas Ward, Josiah Quincy, and other national figures from Massachusetts.

The Flats Mentor farmers, many of them Hmong people from Laos, have been farming the 70 acres since 1985 with help from MSPA, Heifer International, UMass Amherst and UMass Extension, as well as from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Services (CSREES) program.

Growing just enough to feed their families in the mid 1980s, the Flats Mentors farmers now sell their produce at retail and wholesale markets in eastern Massachusetts. The number of farmers markets where Flats Mentor farmers are represented increased from just three in 2004 to 23 farmers markets during the 2007 season.

With the gift of the new tractor, that number will increase to at least 30 in the upcoming season, according to Maria Moreira, whose Lancaster land hosts the Flats Mentor Farm, and who began the highly successful program.

“This has been a lifelong dream for our farmers,” said Moreira.

“We are all just thrilled, and very grateful to MSPA and Heifer International,” she added. “All farmers work hard, and we all put heart and soul into our land. But these farmers have been particularly dedicated and courageous. They work in the best and oldest tradition of American agriculture, and this gift helps recognize that.”

Moreira said that the Flats Mentor Farm program:

• assists and supports small farmers of diverse ethnic backgrounds by providing them with access to land, farming infrastructure and marketing assistance needed to promote and sustain successful farming enterprises.
• promotes economically viable agricultural production that protects the environment through the practice of sustainable farming methods through hands-on-training and technical assistance on soil fertility, irrigation, pest and weed management, and marketing planning, training and implementation.
• provides opportunities for beginning farmers to increase their family income and quality of life by assisting them in production and marketing their produce.

For more information on Flats Mentor Farm:
http://nnifp.org/projects/fmfp

For more information on UMass Extension’s ethnic vegetable and immigrant farmer initiatives:
http://www.bos.frb.org/commdev/c&b/2007/fall/Mangan_UMass_immigrant_farming.pdf
http://www.umassextension.org/images/stories/linked_content/in_common/InCom_2002_fall.pdf

For more information on the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture:
http://www.collectstocks.com/coofmama17.html

For more information on Heifer International:
http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.201520/