minnesota food association trains minorities and immigrants and methods of sustainable agriculture on february second and third they held their eighth annual farmers conference some attendees of this year's conference were asked to tell a story about their farming saw what they good afternoon my name is may we i am a farmer and i'm here today to tell you a little am a very happy to see new faces as well as old faces from previous years which to me is a very good sign that this is a very useful thing conference for everyone and i believe that there is no limitation to learning so i would like to share my story as to why as to why i'm interested in farming and also to share about getting grants for farming so my daughter helped me to apply for this grant which has been able to help we build this high tunnel and my business is called  god and so in this high tunnel is where is where i plant the the small crops and i would like this is what i would like to was during march of last year unfortunately however there were some very strong winds and it blew that high tunnel down which made me very sad so my advice would be it was a very great learning experience for me despite the fact that it hasn't turned out as what i wanted and i would again i feel that i rushed i was i rushed myself a little bit to build the high tunnel therefore i would recommend to anyone who is interested to do a similar thing to take caution and don't rush take your i personally i personally like organic farming very much because this is something that is very natural it is something that our ancestors have done for a long time it's something that is very very good very healthy beneficial for everyone and it makes me  again i really like organic farming i like to grow organic crops it brings it brings me great pleasure when i'm able to have the produce and i sell it to people knowing the fact that they are able they're taking something that's very that's going to be very healthy very beneficial for them and in regards to farming i believe everyone has their  own perhaps unique ideas in ways of growing and farming their crops i think along the process we are able to figure out what method is works best for us so that is one thing what why i like gardening and farming so much but the fact is for me when i say bad gardening is a good money earner and what is more fulfilling and the truth is it's a it's something that and that makes me rich in heart and mind and at the end of the day i feel good about it however sometimes i run into problems financial problems because i don't have enough money to to buy seedlings to buy seeds and the basic things to get started as well however like i said it is a livelihood that  makes me feel good in my heart mind and body so that's why i like it oldest in my family and traditionally culturally the oldest especially the eldest daughter was always expected to do a lot of house chores so that's what i did mostly in my life and because of that i am not very educated i and motivated to do a lot of the chores that i need to do i have i have eight children thank you me ok so so you guys keep questions in your mind if you have questions for me we're going to move on to our next farmer if i see your name please forgive me i good afternoon everybody good afternoon everybody thank you very much i cannot pronounce your name clearly but when she asked me to say something and i said i'm the least among the greatest farmers in the world so i say there's only one thing i can share with you maybe a few things from my background but i accepted it because it's an opportunity for me to say thank you for an opportunity i was blind now i see i have learnt a lot before i came here i didn't know so much so i would like to say thank you for the organization and i can say think your the way back to maria who was our main speaker here who made it possible for me to be here that's why i'm standing here at this point that's my main point for standing here i'm thankful for an opportunity but i've seen a lot of opportunities which i could not see before i love my background is farming i grew up growing cotton and millet and rice  cash crops now for those who are familiar with these crops they are very difficult to take care of if you're doing cotton picking it up spraying i can still smell the chemicals which we used to pray that maybe thirty years ago many animals were dying around me and some of the people around me were dying because of the methods which we used them we had to do millette you had we had to take care of me and my brother making sure that the birds will not eat before we have missed those who have done this you know how difficult this can be two of you in a five acre land it's almost impossible but we did it why am i saying  saying this because i grew up and i say i don't want to do this anymore because it is the most difficult way of making a living and there is no fun unfortunately i love being in that's why i'm back here you can't run away few like to do something so wherever i've been i've been doing farming the little i've been able to do lately is that i grow whatever i grow and take the food to the food shelter who is this important to me the reason  i want to be a farmer i do not have an answer to the question as to why some people still sleep hungry that bothers me a lot and that's why i have been able to find a place to take the food i grow which is a blessing to me that is extra i take it to the food shelter praying that maria will give us a big piece of land so i will be able to share more the food i grow but if you can help me with this i will be very very happy many people sleep hungry and many people have more food to waste this is why i want to be a farmer if i can grow food not for profit but just to break even and make sure somebody does not sleep hungry i would be a happy human being so this is my so when i quit working i started babysitting and then in two thousand and three we moved to arkansas price was a million dollars  poor people and the second chicken farm in fort smith it was cost us five hundred thousand dollars  so the total number of years that we spent raising chickens in arkansas was five years what they all had so after that happened in we came back here this year i decided to farm again but i'm only farming two acres  local when we moved back from arkansas we came back penniless and whenever i think about it it really it really makes me sad and feel a lot of hardship because of that for thank you for sharing that i know it's a hard story to share i think what bob didn't tell you guys was that they went down there to arkansas and they ran a poultry farm and they lost everything all the homes all the thank you for so yeah it's exciting to share stories and once the momentum gets going it's really fun and so our next farmer we have another farmer his name is kno money for now i'm not saying that people what they need for money they are green bad but it just a community sort of production sharing with the people i make the people realize that the people who are doing this job oh hello everyone my name is paul yang tao this is my second time coming up to speak to everyone still there's a lot of you so it makes me a little nervous because i don't do this though i'm going to tell why i am farming ever since i have a bet i have come to the united states i have for thirty years i have been farming ever the thing is we see the united states as a very modernized developed country however and ironically why is it that a lot of people have have a lot of sickness since since the year two thousand my husband has retired and two we we both have farmed it's been our livelihood ever since  we both like what we're doing very much and the only thing that we regret is that we are we feel we're a little too old for this  we feel that regardless of one's educational background or or history america has given us has given everyone the same opportunities to  that we received here in the united states that has made our kids that has given education for our kids a one is a doctor and another is a nurse organically and eventually be certified as organic farmers   that are planted organically our produce as free of chemicals and pesticide and we have received the permission to do that so if you come to the farmers market and you see a table that says organic and chemical free that will probably be us thank you to america thank you to the committee and everyone today for giving the opportunity and chance for for me to have what i have today pushed her biggest challenge is actually reading in the documents a record keeping that's her biggest challenge farming is easy raising animals lifestyle is easy we know how to do the work the hardest part is the paperwork especially getting certified organic like when you have you lola said it's because we're all that's why have that you would like to pass down to the younger generation in regards to farming and gardening that you think would be useful for the younger generation to know number what would you what do you have to what it vice do you have to motivate the younger generation to become farmers just like you  in how we grow our crops on our land that would be one method and another one is just to be just be very hardworking that's something that is very good to have in regards to farming you don't have to be highly educated young she you are young yet you just have to be diligen believe in hard work and just like it and it will work for you for our generation we've seen how hard our parents generation worked so i have to agree with the antti here that it comes down to hard work and i'll be very honest there have been many many many days where my mother will get up go to the field and come back and i will have done my eight hours and she's doing her twelve so i know that their generation works a lot harder at it than we do what i believe our generation has as an advantage over at their generation is we have technology and we have knowledge and knowledge that we can share with one another to lighten our workload to do things different to do things better than we used to do before so i think that for we can learn a lot from their generation and but for us to go forward with our generation we have to take advantage of all the technology and all the knowledge that has come before and put all of that to use so that i don't know about you but personally for me i don't want to work as hard as their generation so i want to work as little as possible using all the technology and all the knowledge that we have and that is what we're here to do today sharing knowledge and sharing the technology so that we can all do the work a little bit less harder