st. paul

Soil connects people to history, according to Jose Luis Villaseñor.

Farming has always been a part of Villaseñor's life. In the 1960s, his father left his family in Mexico to work on farms in the United States as part of the Bracero program, which allowed Mexican nationals to work in the United States. Now Villaseñor grows chili peppers and onions in his back yard in Minneapolis' Phillips neighborhood and will try to plant corn this year so his family can make its own tortillas.

Villaseñor, 36, was among more than 200 farmers attending the Minnesota Food Association's Immigrant and Minority Farmers Conference in St. Paul on Friday, connecting with others who have similar visions of overcoming racial inequities and building community in farming.

Villaseñor, who was born in Alaska and spent a few years of his childhood in Mexico, is executive director of Tamales y Bicicletas, a Latino-led environmental justice initiative in Minneapolis. He works with Latino youths to connect them to their culture through alternative transportation and access to local and organic food.

"It is important for young people, particularly Latinos and inmigrantes to be connected to soil," Villaseñor said. He said the annual conference is a way to "make that real-life connection with people that look like us and speak our language" and to share resources.

The conference brought together farmers who came to the United States from places as far-flung as Laos, Mexico and Guatemala. Many of the attendees needed language interpreters during the workshops, which covered a variety of topics, including organic farming and how to farm in Minnesota's climate.

About 330 people registered for the event, including 230 farmers, up from about 170 farmers who attended last year, according to Glen Hill, executive director of the Minnesota Food Association. People came from Ohio, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Iowa, and many had attended one of the six previous conferences.

"The majority of people are people of color and immigrants," Hill said. "It really has a different flavor and atmosphere to it."

After grabbing some lunch Friday, everyone gathered to talk about why they love farming. LaDonna Sanders-Redmond, senior program associate for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis, facilitated the storytelling.

To get things going, Sanders-Redmond told her own story. While living in Chicago, she started to farm in order to feed her son, whose allergies to dairy, eggs, shellfish and peanuts required a special diet. Fresh produce was expensive, and when she saw how cheap seeds were, she decided to plant her own vegetables.

"My love for working the land is really about the love I have for my child," Sanders-Redmond said. She eventually organized urban farming in her community, where vacant lots would be converted to urban farm sites.

Teng Lee, 19, is a farm steward for the Youth Farm and Market Project, which builds youth leadership in the Twin Cities through growing and selling food from gardens and greenhouses. He attended the conference Friday to learn more about urban agriculture.

Lee, whose parents immigrated from Laos and Thailand before he was born, has watched his mom farm his whole life. She has a garden in their back yard where she grows Thai peppers to make into a hot paste to cook with "anything and everything," he said.

Kaitlyn Walsh is a University of Minnesota journalism student on assignment for the Star Tribune.