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<br />Top: Wameng Lee, president of the Hmong American
<br />Cooperative, acts as a primary liaison between AFT and
<br />the Hmong farmers.
<br />Bottom: Will Scott, president of the African - American
<br />Farmers of California, says the Small Farm Center brings
<br />diverse groups together.
<br />of 20 -acre segments to people of the same national origins or
<br />like- minded beliefs. For example, one was named Temperance
<br />Colony and was limited, as the name implies, to teetotalers. The
<br />new Small Farm Center is located on a part of the original Fresno
<br />Colony.
<br />Before the turn of the 20th century, the area's productive soils
<br />attracted a varied mix of nationalities, each with knowledge of
<br />their homeland's farm specialties, such as Armenian fig and
<br />raisin producers and Portuguese dairymen. There were
<br />Germans, Dutch, Japanese, Scandinavians and Yugoslavians. In
<br />the early 1930s a large influx of Dust Bowl emigres from
<br />Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas added to the farming diversity.
<br />The immigrants worked as farm laborers, saved their money
<br />and eventually bought their own farms. The primary goal of the
<br />Small Farm Center is to assist the current wave of immigrants to
<br />become self - sufficient farmers and, ultimately, landowners.
<br />THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, with roughly 60,000 Hmong resi-
<br />dents, is home to the largest concentration of this ethnic group
<br />outside Asia. "Many of the Hmong people are in this valley
<br />because of the opportunity to farm," said Chuko Thao, director
<br />of the Hmong American Community, a nonprofit group formed
<br />to help Central Valley Hmong find jobs, schools, housing and
<br />health care.
<br />Many of the Hmong living in the United States came to this
<br />country as refugees. Thousands of Hmong men and boys were
<br />recruited off their farms in the mountains of Laos by the CIA. to
<br />fight the North Vietnamese along the Ho Chi Minh Trail during
<br />the Vietnam War. When Laos fell to communism in 1975,
<br />Hmong immigration into the U.S. began. Many were attracted to
<br />agricultural areas of California, Minnesota and North and South
<br />Carolina.
<br />In addition to being California's richest agricultural produc-
<br />er, Fresno County leads the state in the number of small farms.
<br />Of its more than 6,000 total farm units, over 62 percent of them
<br />are classified as small farms, defined by the U.S. Department of
<br />Agriculture as family -run units that gross less than $250,000 per
<br />year in farm product sales.
<br />More than half of Fresno County's .small farms are operated
<br />by minorities. Of these, Asian farmers (Hmong, Lao, Chinese
<br />and Vietnamese) make up the largest segment with 62 percent.
<br />The next largest minority farm group is Hispanic, followed by
<br />American - Indian and African- American farmers. More recently,
<br />the area has also become home to new immigrants from
<br />Armenia, Kazakhstan, Russia and India.
<br />The concept for the Small Farm Resource and Training
<br />Center began four years ago when two dozen public and private
<br />agencies and nonprofit organizations met with a group of small
<br />farmers to define their needs. The group, known as the Small
<br />F.
<br />_ a
<br />Farm Resource Network, collectively sought direction at meet-
<br />ings facilitated through the office of the area's legislative repre-
<br />sentative, Congressman Cal Dooley (D- Hanford/Fresno). The
<br />result of these workshops was an action plan to address four pri-
<br />orities of the small farmers: land acquisition, loan access, techni-
<br />cal assistance and marketing. Development of the training center
<br />and incubator farm was an integral part of the action plan.
<br />The property that became the Small Farm Center was owned
<br />by 86 -year old Dusan Misita, whose father came to the area from
<br />Yugoslavia and bought nearby farm property in 1900. Misita had
<br />received several offers from developers with plans to subdivide
<br />the land or convert it to non - agricultural uses. Since he preferred
<br />to see it remain in farming, Misita was pleased when American
<br />Farmland Trust offered to buy the land, and he accepted a pur-
<br />chase offer of $270,000.
<br />This fair market value price of around $7,000 an acre reflects
<br />the early stages of transition to development values, said
<br />Kirkpatrick. Similar farm property further removed from the city
<br />would sell for $3,000 to $4,000 per acre. AFT plans to eventu-
<br />ally sell an agricultural conservation easement on the property
<br />A M E R I C A N F A R M L A N D S U M M E R 2 0 0 1
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