Episode 34

full
Published on:

8th Jun 2023

Lobbying, potlucks, and boundaries w/ Vanessa García Polanco

This week we're talking to Vanessa García Polanco, Director of Government Relations with the National Young Farmers Coalition. Vanessa is a Dominican immigrant with her Master's Degree in Community Food and Agriculture Systems from Michigan State University, and as a teenager she rebelled by volunteering at non-profits.

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Transcript
Arlene:

Welcome to another episode of Barnyard Language.

Arlene:

Thank you for joining us here on the podcast again today.

Arlene:

And as usual, I'm gonna ask Caite, what's going on in Iowa?

Arlene:

I can hear the birds chirping this morning.

Arlene:

Katie, your bird feeder must be busy.

Caite:

It's not actually, I think they're pissed off because

Caite:

I need to go fill the feeders.

Caite:

Oh, okay.

Caite:

So what you're hearing is Angry Birds going, WTF lady.

Caite:

Yeah.

Caite:

You have made us dependent on you and now you are

Arlene:

not here.

Arlene:

No.

Arlene:

Now you've not done your part

Caite:

in this.

Caite:

Yeah.

Caite:

Not a lot.

Arlene:

Were you not ready for that question?

Caite:

I, I feel like there should be stuff going on, but it's that time of

Caite:

year where the, we're just waiting.

Caite:

Mostly it hasn't rained in several weeks, so now we're in that.

Caite:

Continual space where my life pro tip is to never tell any farmer

Caite:

what the weather forecast says.

Caite:

No matter how nicely they ask, because you will be on the receiving

Caite:

end of their feelings about it.

Arlene:

Because as if you're the meteorologist who you

Caite:

know, like yes, clearly the access to the forecast

Caite:

denotes control of said forecast.

Caite:

And

Caite:

Yeah.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

So just tell them to check their own app or listen to the radio or however

Arlene:

they watch their weather channel.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

However, they get their many forms of weather, not through

Caite:

you.

Caite:

Whatever they do, it's not my problem.

Caite:

Yesterday though, my mom was here with her coon dog and we're having

Caite:

a serious raccoon problem in our neighborhood just because it is so dry.

Caite:

And I do, I feel for them because they have babies to feed.

Caite:

However, our neighbor had a raccoon take a full-grown chicken out

Caite:

of his front yard in the middle of the afternoon a few days ago.

Caite:

Our benevolent feelings are over.

Caite:

So my mom was here this weekend with her coon dog and he managed to

Caite:

tree a raccoon inside a antique all crop combine in the back of Jim Shed

Caite:

yesterday at five 30 in the morning.

Caite:

And if you ever want to hear a racket, A coon dog, a lab, and an

Caite:

Australian shepherd with the raccoon stuck inside a combine inside a

Caite:

metal pole shed is really, is that a nice way to wake up quite a thing.

Caite:

I was awake real quick.

Caite:

I took the 22 out there, saw where they were and went, Nope.

Caite:

Good luck you guys.

Caite:

And turned around and came back in the house because

Arlene:

you weren't gonna shoot up the combine.

Caite:

That too, but there was also no way in hell I couldn't get past

Caite:

the middle of the shed without pulling equipment out and it's not worth it.

Caite:

Yeah.

Caite:

Now we wait.

Caite:

But I don't know if they got the raccoon or not.

Caite:

Yeah.

Caite:

Since they left the shed.

Caite:

I'm gonna assume they did, because if anyone else here has coon dogs or has

Caite:

ever dealt with hunting dogs, they don't stop until it's dead generally,

Caite:

which is, what they're red for.

Caite:

But yeah, that's their purpose.

Caite:

And their purpose.

Caite:

Yeah.

Arlene:

So does life change much now that the kids aren't in school on

Arlene:

your farm or they just go to the same.

Arlene:

Daycare where they do before and after,

Caite:

they generally get after school care at daycare, during school anyway.

Caite:

So now they just go to daycare for the whole day instead of right after school.

Caite:

Sure.

Caite:

So now it's pretty, pretty same.

Caite:

The level of, I don't wanna say chaos at daycare is a little

Caite:

higher, but daycare is not.

Caite:

Bound to some of the same educational goals.

Caite:

Sure.

Caite:

Which is good.

Caite:

I don't want my kids to be forced into, attainment at all costs all summer.

Caite:

I think it's good for them to have time to screw around and be little kids, and

Caite:

daycare takes very good care of them, and they get healthy meals and they're

Caite:

perfectly safe and blah, blah, blah.

Caite:

Yes.

Caite:

I'm on the daycare board.

Caite:

But I'm glad that they get time to just mess around.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

This is their summer holiday, right?

Arlene:

Yeah.

Caite:

The girl child has been asking every morning.

Caite:

Now, if today is the first day of first grade, and we are many days away from

Caite:

that one week into summer vacation.

Caite:

And also, you cannot say summer vacation anywhere near her because

Caite:

she assumes that means that today is the day that we are going somewhere.

Caite:

She

Arlene:

has a vacation.

Arlene:

Means you have to leave.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Caite:

Yeah.

Caite:

She does want to go back to last summer we took him into the Circus World

Caite:

Museum in Baraboo, which was the.

Caite:

Winter home of the Ringling Brothers Circus, Oh, neat.

Caite:

Before that shut down.

Caite:

But they have elephants there, so she really wants to go ride an elephant.

Caite:

This is the last year.

Caite:

The elephants will be there before they're retired.

Caite:

They do have a circus every day.

Caite:

It's a really cool museum and a really cool place to visit, but, Having to start

Caite:

every day with telling her that a today is not the first day of first grade.

Caite:

And also we are not going to the ocean or to write elephants today.

Caite:

He it's not nice to start your day with that much disappointment

Caite:

for your six-year-old, because who are hooray, you get to go.

Caite:

It's a daycare, no matter how cool daycare is, it can't really

Caite:

compete with riding elephants in the ocean on her way to first grade.

Caite:

That is true.

Caite:

She thinks she should be doing

Arlene:

that.

Arlene:

Those are things that she has in her head.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

So avoid

Caite:

the way she did graduate to the Yeah, she did graduate

Caite:

to the big kid class at daycare because she's a first grader now.

Caite:

Yeah, Henry, oh, the boy child is still in the kindergarten classroom.

Caite:

So I think that's actually been really good for them, that

Caite:

they are not together all day.

Caite:

Yeah.

Caite:

And then coming home and being together all day.

Caite:

So that's helped matters substantially.

Caite:

That's good.

Caite:

Other than that, nothing.

Caite:

Have you been, Arlene, you had big excitement at your farm this weekend?

Caite:

Yes, this weekend

Arlene:

was glad Spring got done in time.

Arlene:

This weekend was prom and yes, the spraying got done in time

Arlene:

that needed to get done last week.

Arlene:

There's more to be done this week, but that's fine.

Arlene:

The tractor got cleaned, the tractor got decorated.

Arlene:

We.

Arlene:

Traversed into town at various different routes.

Arlene:

So our town is a little tricky to get through with farm equipment because

Arlene:

there's a canal system and we are at the middle point of the canal.

Arlene:

So there are several bridges that are not all that wide and our swing

Arlene:

bridges for boat traffic to get through.

Arlene:

So we were trying to get from our farm to the first photo location

Arlene:

because you couldn't just have one.

Arlene:

Prom didn't start until the evening, but pictures started at noon, so

Arlene:

there was a lot of hours of photos and being very looking, very beautiful.

Arlene:

Yeah, we, your daughter did

Caite:

look absolutely gorgeous.

Arlene:

Yes, she did look, yeah, she did look very

Caite:

nice as did the tractor.

Caite:

Lovely decorat.

Arlene:

Good job.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

And her date was all right too.

Arlene:

Yeah, he was fine.

Arlene:

No, he looked

Caite:

handsome as well.

Caite:

I haven't seen any pictures of him, so I'll just take your word for it,

Arlene:

yeah.

Arlene:

We did the route straight downtown and then around, around the outside edges

Arlene:

of town to get to the first location, which is where they're doing photos at.

Arlene:

The railway museum.

Arlene:

So if you want pictures with kabua engines or all other manner of old

Arlene:

railway cars, that was the place to be.

Arlene:

But it does have a lot of neat porches and areas set up.

Arlene:

The staff were really great.

Arlene:

They had lots of little nooks and crannies for the kids to, to take

Arlene:

smaller groups in benches and flowers and all kinds of nice locations.

Arlene:

And then, There's another small museum in town where they were doing more

Arlene:

pictures, so they moved over there and then we went over to one of the

Arlene:

waterfront areas, did some pictures there.

Arlene:

Then there was still time to come back to the farm and lounge for a

Arlene:

few minutes and get something to eat because when you start doing hair at

Arlene:

10 in the morning and it gets too mid afternoon, you start to get a bit hungry.

Arlene:

And then the actual problem was at the high school.

Arlene:

And I would say most.

Arlene:

Schools that I've ever heard of in our area anyway, don't do prom at the

Arlene:

high school, it'd be at like a golf course or maybe a hotel or something.

Arlene:

But in our town they still do it at the high school.

Arlene:

And the hospitality teacher was the caterer.

Arlene:

So it makes it definitely more affordable.

Arlene:

And so that was convenient location-wise too, cuz we're

Arlene:

not very far from the school.

Arlene:

And actually right next to the high school is where my husband's

Arlene:

grandmother lives in retirement home.

Arlene:

So we.

Arlene:

Called her and did a little drive by, pulled into the entry area

Arlene:

of the retirement home and so she could see the girl and the boy and

Arlene:

the tractor all decorated and she recruited a whole bunch of people

Arlene:

to come out and say hi and see them.

Arlene:

So that was very sweet too.

Arlene:

So they had some adoring fans of the retirement home

Arlene:

before they went over to prom.

Arlene:

So yeah, everything went well.

Arlene:

It had been super hot this past week, like I don't know what it is, an American,

Arlene:

but 32, 35 degrees and humid, like just super sticky hot for a few days, but

Arlene:

thankfully the weather changed overnight.

Arlene:

Friday and Saturday was breezy for sure.

Arlene:

Everyone had the tossled hair look, no matter what their hairstylist had done.

Arlene:

But it was not nearly as hot, so it was much more comfortable for

Arlene:

standing around and taking pictures.

Arlene:

So that was good.

Arlene:

Did you go to your pro.

Arlene:

I did.

Arlene:

Yes.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

Back in those days, presumably not

Caite:

with the, not with the one you're married to now.

Arlene:

No.

Arlene:

A different guy.

Arlene:

Back in those days we still had grade 13 here in Ontario, so I graduated

Arlene:

almost a year and a half older than my daughter, just based on, we had

Arlene:

an extra year of high school, and I'm a summer birthday and she's a winter

Arlene:

Yeah, and I lived closer to a major city, so we actually went like right

Arlene:

downtown into the city to a hotel, had a catered meal, all that kind of stuff.

Arlene:

And at that time we're als we are also on the border of an Ontario

Arlene:

and Quebec, and the drinking agent Ontario is 19, but in Quebec it's 18.

Arlene:

So after prom, then you could go on these like boat tours.

Arlene:

And it would basically just brought you across the provincial line

Arlene:

and then anyone who was 18 could drink once you crossed that line.

Arlene:

So that's what you did after prom.

Arlene:

So it was a slightly different scenario than what we have

Arlene:

out here, but it was fine.

Arlene:

Yeah, I don't have like bad memories of prom, but I don't remember it being

Arlene:

the best night of my life either.

Arlene:

It was fine.

Arlene:

Did you go to yours?

Arlene:

I did.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

Should we go ahead and introduce our guest for this week?

Caite:

I suppose we should.

Arlene:

Today we are excited to be talking to Vanessa Garcia Polanco, who's an

Arlene:

experienced leader, researcher, speaker, writer, and organizer on issues around

Arlene:

food, agriculture, and climate change.

Arlene:

So Vanessa, we start each of our interviews with the same question,

Arlene:

and this is a way for you to introduce yourself to our listeners.

Arlene:

So we always ask, what are you growing?

Arlene:

So for our farmers, that can cover crops and livestock, but it also covers

Arlene:

families, businesses, career, social change, and all kinds of other stuff.

Arlene:

Vanessa, what are you

Vanessa:

growing?

Vanessa:

I'm growing boundaries because it's a really busy farm bill year.

Vanessa:

So it's a really important for people like me who are really

Vanessa:

involved in Washington DC to still grow connections and self-care.

Vanessa:

So the way you do that is by having boundaries.

Vanessa:

I actually shutting down your computer at 6:00 PM and saying no to

Vanessa:

things which is really hard for me.

Vanessa:

As I pol policy co-director, young farmers.

Vanessa:

But I always try to be really mindful of my boundaries, so always growing to

Vanessa:

take care of myself more, and prioritize connections, community and boundaries.

Arlene:

That is a really good one.

Arlene:

I'm sure we could all use some some work on our boundaries for sure.

Arlene:

Or

Caite:

so.

Caite:

Vanessa, what is your background when it comes to agriculture

Caite:

and how did you, yeah.

Caite:

So how did you end up where you are now?

Vanessa:

I always like to say my mom say I took care of the countryside, but I

Vanessa:

didn't take the countryside outta you.

Vanessa:

And so that one better in Spanish is

Vanessa:

And I come from a really agricultural background in

Vanessa:

community in the Dominican Republic.

Vanessa:

I usually compare to the Midwest of the Dominican Republic cuz it's where a lot

Vanessa:

of the tubers and products that we eat traditionally consume, like cassava,

Vanessa:

plantains are produced and we produce all 50% all the eggs in the country.

Vanessa:

And that time is called Mok in the Dominican Republic.

Vanessa:

My dad is a farmer.

Vanessa:

All my grandparents have own land and worked the land.

Vanessa:

So when we moved to the United States to rejoin with my family, inform my family

Vanessa:

to pursue more career opportunities, I was really interested in environmental

Vanessa:

issues with a focus in agriculture, like sustainable agriculture.

Vanessa:

So that was really shocking to my family.

Vanessa:

We literally, they literally took me.

Vanessa:

From not rural community, but like a really agri-business centric

Vanessa:

town to the United States, and are you gonna study agriculture?

Vanessa:

So that was really shocking for them.

Vanessa:

But it was also really beautiful because it allow us as Dominican immigrants to

Vanessa:

stay connected to a lot of our identity through me studying agriculture.

Vanessa:

Like I will call my dad asking them about sub production.

Vanessa:

I will call my uncle asking him about chicken fit one day at 10:00 PM when

Vanessa:

I always remember that he freak out.

Vanessa:

No, I have a question about feeding animals.

Vanessa:

And obviously I had to visit a lot of farms and learn a lot about farming in the

Vanessa:

United States because it was so different than the kind of farming that I grew up.

Vanessa:

And my family will come to all my field trips and they still come

Vanessa:

every time I have to go visit a farm.

Vanessa:

So it has been a beautiful journey of using agriculture to stay connected to

Vanessa:

my identity as a Dominican immigrant.

Vanessa:

Can

Arlene:

you tell her a little listeners a little bit about where you attended

Arlene:

school and what you did in your undergraduate and master's programs

Arlene:

in terms of studying agriculture?

Vanessa:

Yeah, sure.

Vanessa:

So I attended a University of Rhode Island.

Vanessa:

That is a land grand university, but agriculture is not the main focus

Vanessa:

because we are also an o an ocean grand that is also a land grand.

Vanessa:

So we are really ocean oriented.

Vanessa:

So we will take a lot of classes on fishery management, no agriculture.

Vanessa:

But I was one of the few people in the entire program that was actually

Vanessa:

really interested in agriculture.

Vanessa:

But obviously we had your traditional land grant classes like horticulture,

Vanessa:

vegetable production and I got the opportunity to work for Extension

Vanessa:

for the four years of my undergrad.

Vanessa:

And that really solidified my passion for community outreach, talking to

Vanessa:

farmers, talking to gardeners about how we can grow food in different ways.

Vanessa:

And after that I kept asking my mentors, where should I go to grad school?

Vanessa:

And everyone kept saying Michigan State and Michigan State told me, come here.

Vanessa:

So I got the opportunity to move to Michigan where I learned a

Vanessa:

lot about agriculture because it's really different from the.

Vanessa:

New England Agriculture, Rhode Island.

Vanessa:

And I had a great time there in a program called Community Sustainability

Vanessa:

that focused in more alternative agriculture and more community driven

Vanessa:

agriculture, but also being one of the biggest land grants in the country.

Vanessa:

I got to learn a lot about agri-business management, dairy management, and

Vanessa:

agricultural economics when my undergrad having environmental

Vanessa:

economics with a concentration of food.

Vanessa:

So it was just a really.

Vanessa:

Full circle opportunities always driven about programmatic interventions

Vanessa:

and policy because I was really interested on how do we do we have

Vanessa:

this land run institutions and we have many nonprofits that are working

Vanessa:

to change our food systems, but how do we actually funding, how do we

Vanessa:

actually institutionalize the support?

Vanessa:

So I got really interested on funding, like how do we actually fund things?

Vanessa:

How do we actually allocate money for things?

Vanessa:

And what is the role of federal government to impact our communities

Vanessa:

through those kind of programs that are impacting us in our daily lives?

Vanessa:

Like couple of ascension, like land grant universities, like those

Vanessa:

nonprofits that do outreach and technical assistance to farmers.

Caite:

I think as someone who also attended a land grant,

Caite:

I went to Iowa State I think.

Caite:

That the land grant universities get so underestimated for their public work.

Caite:

And things like extension because we think of college as just a place where you go

Caite:

for four years and they hand you a sheet of paper and then they send you a bunch

Caite:

of bills and then that's it, and that's like the extent of the college experience.

Caite:

So I'm wondering as we have a fair number of non-US based listeners, if

Caite:

you can explain a little more about what the land grant system is like

Caite:

and what things like Cooperative Extension do, because it doesn't seem

Caite:

to be a big thing in other places.

Caite:

Is that correct, Arlene?

Arlene:

Yeah, I, yeah, Vanessa, I'm Canadian and I hear those terms, but yeah,

Arlene:

we don't have a similar system in Canada.

Arlene:

There's not really an equivalent system as nationally.

Arlene:

There are universities where there are ag programs, but they

Arlene:

aren't affiliated in the same way.

Arlene:

I wouldn't say

Vanessa:

definitely.

Vanessa:

I think that's, it's definitely really unique.

Vanessa:

And actually there's a specific ad that created a couple of ascension

Vanessa:

systems called the Mid Liver.

Vanessa:

A.

Vanessa:

Of 1912.

Vanessa:

I remember that because it's one of my favorite agricultural act.

Vanessa:

And basically it creates a mandate to land grant universities that they

Vanessa:

need to extend knowledge change lives.

Vanessa:

And I always remember that tagline because it's beautiful.

Vanessa:

I think we sometimes see universities as this gay kept places where research

Vanessa:

is happening that is only for other academics and maybe for the students.

Vanessa:

But that mandate actually tell the university you need to allocate

Vanessa:

certain amount of resources to actually share the re the resource

Vanessa:

that you're doing to the community.

Vanessa:

So impacts the community.

Vanessa:

And we are actually all following better science-based decisions.

Vanessa:

And when I say science-based decisions, it's not, it's only for farmers,

Vanessa:

it's also for homeowners, residents.

Vanessa:

For example you.

Vanessa:

I, couple of extension was really unique that we also had a lot of

Vanessa:

like groundwater education, a lot of residential gardening, education.

Vanessa:

And farmer education and many other things that I probably do not remember.

Vanessa:

So it's a lot, it's a lot of this idea that if you live in a community,

Vanessa:

the university, you should be having resources from the university so you can

Vanessa:

protect your natural resources because again, it's water, grass, watershed, or

Vanessa:

soils, A lot of those things like that.

Vanessa:

Initially in other countries it's just call as extension and it's usually done

Vanessa:

by the Department of uca of agriculture.

Vanessa:

Like for example, my dad is an station agent in the Dominican Republic

Vanessa:

with the Department of Agriculture.

Vanessa:

But his mandates are really different.

Vanessa:

His support structures are really different.

Vanessa:

Wearing in the university is just more structure because there's a set of

Vanessa:

programs that almost every university does always mandated to do, especially

Vanessa:

if it's a land grant by statutory authority of the depart of the.

Vanessa:

Of the government.

Vanessa:

So I think that's really unique.

Vanessa:

But it's also really energizing because at example, young farmers, every

Vanessa:

time that we ask our farmers, where do you like to get resources from?

Vanessa:

They do not say the farming, agriculture, they say extension.

Vanessa:

So it's a great way to see how this localized community driven education

Vanessa:

and data science based is affecting our farmers in our, in, in our communities.

Caite:

I think too, as a farmer who, went to a land grant school and then

Caite:

takes a lot of advantage of our local extension office, it's so great to

Caite:

not only have research that's actually being applied to something besides

Caite:

writing papers and putting them in journals that nobody outside the

Caite:

university system will ever see, but to have, a lot of extension agents.

Caite:

Are farmers themselves, are community members themselves, and so having that

Caite:

interpretation between the research that might not be super approachable for a lot

Caite:

of folks into something that makes sense in our area and can be put out there by

Caite:

people who farm in our area and know the community is so great to really make that

Caite:

research useful because there's really not a lot of point in doing research

Caite:

that sits in a journal that nobody sees.

Caite:

It's a lot of money and a lot of work for nothing really.

Caite:

Knowledge is important for the base, for the sake of knowledge, but

Caite:

knowledge that is useful is even better.

Vanessa:

Definitely, and I think especially in the United States in

Vanessa:

the past few years, we have invested more in science communication.

Vanessa:

Like I was part of my science communication club at Michigan State u I

Vanessa:

has one of the best science communication trainings in the country right now.

Vanessa:

So I think right now, after a lot of attacks that happening in science in the

Vanessa:

United States, we have reinvigorated this idea that we need to be communicating

Vanessa:

science more effectively because it's an important role to play in your decision

Vanessa:

making in government, in our communities.

Arlene:

Yeah, that's a really good point because.

Arlene:

It's not just about doing the science, but making sure that people understand

Arlene:

it and have access to it and Yeah.

Arlene:

And to have it be useful in their lives.

Arlene:

For sure.

Arlene:

So you've talked a little bit about your work.

Arlene:

You work now at the National Young Farmers Coalition, and I'm gonna be the

Arlene:

the Canadian co-host again and ask you to tell me about what that is because

Arlene:

I'll be honest I don't know what it is.

Arlene:

So if you can tell me a bit about the organization and what

Arlene:

you're working on and what the mission is, that kind of stuff.

Vanessa:

Yeah, definitely.

Vanessa:

I actually think there's like a Canadian counterpart.

Vanessa:

I do not remember how they're called.

Vanessa:

But basically we are a grassroots chapter and membership based organization.

Vanessa:

We have 45 chapters nationwide and over 250,000 supporters.

Vanessa:

Basically we believe that we wanna equip the next generation of farmers with

Vanessa:

resources so they can farm and focusing on feeding their communities, fighting

Vanessa:

climate change, and building equity and sustainability in our food system.

Vanessa:

And the way I came to young farmers is really funny.

Vanessa:

I was a member in Rhode Island and in the island chapter a lot of what we do is

Vanessa:

just go to go visit farms and meet people.

Vanessa:

You do a little bit.

Vanessa:

Every chapter needs to have a policy component.

Vanessa:

So we will do policy education to how to get involved in the Farm bill

Vanessa:

with the local food policy council within the agricultural department.

Vanessa:

So right now I'm policy director.

Vanessa:

I have been with the coalition for three years and I started as a policy associate.

Vanessa:

So I have grown a lot the coalition and a lot of what we do is provide.

Vanessa:

What we usually call movement support to farmers so they can

Vanessa:

feel that a lot of their needs and wants are being represented and

Vanessa:

advocated for at a state level.

Vanessa:

And also the federal level here in Washington DC And that's why I'm based

Vanessa:

in Washington DC because in my main role is to communicate to elected officials

Vanessa:

and administrative officials at U S D A.

Vanessa:

The concerns we're hearing from our farmers on the ground, and especially in

Vanessa:

a farm bill year that is only every five, six years, making sure that we actually

Vanessa:

introduce legislation and pragmatic changes so the conditions can improve

Vanessa:

on the ground for, or young farmers who are the next generation of farmers

Vanessa:

who are farming now and are struggling now in the ground to stay farming.

Caite:

So what is how old is too old to be a young farmer?

Caite:

Somebody's I'm aging out quickly.

Caite:

But

Vanessa:

We do not have a definition as a coalition because

Vanessa:

of many different definitions.

Vanessa:

Just to give an example, the Department of Agriculture in the

Vanessa:

United States says that beginning farmer, no young farmer is anyone

Vanessa:

with less than 10 years of experience.

Vanessa:

The risk management agency inside U S D A, I think it says

Vanessa:

only five years of farming.

Vanessa:

We, the United Nations is anyone under 35.

Vanessa:

The U definition of the United States is anyone under 18.

Vanessa:

So again, there's many different definitions and because our farmers

Vanessa:

come from many different backgrounds, some more farmers are like 42 and they

Vanessa:

just started farming two years ago.

Vanessa:

Is that a young farmer?

Vanessa:

For us, it is.

Vanessa:

Some more farmers are 22 and literally graduated college and are looking

Vanessa:

to do a farmer apprenticeship.

Vanessa:

So that's one more members.

Vanessa:

Again, I think our members, even when we say young in the title is more values

Vanessa:

affiliated and less about your age.

Vanessa:

Even our boring, our staff, we, our younger person is 22 and our older is 39.

Vanessa:

And our membership is really brought

Caite:

too.

Caite:

So the other thing is someone who lives in a very, I don't know, normal,

Caite:

conservative farm area, like Iowa, but in a very liberal, small corner

Caite:

of that area, how can we make advocacy and a lot of the work that the Young

Caite:

Farmers Coalition is doing more.

Caite:

Accessible to a wider range of people, because I know a fair number

Caite:

of more conventional farmers who don't feel like things like young

Caite:

farmers are necessarily for them.

Caite:

But there are so few farmers and so many stresses against farmers that I think it

Caite:

makes a lot more sense for all of us to work together, because we all have a lot

Caite:

more in common than we do differences.

Caite:

But I'm wondering how we approach bringing people in, and bringing the community

Caite:

closer generally, because there's enough problems without us fighting each other.

Vanessa:

Yeah, definitely.

Vanessa:

And I think a formula year is a perfect year to be thinking about that because

Vanessa:

we do have a really large ecosystems of farm groups in the United States.

Vanessa:

So if you think young farmers is not the right group for you across the

Vanessa:

street, find another organizing space because there will be other places

Vanessa:

that have your values and and also your theory change or theory change.

Vanessa:

We believe in incremental change that way we focus a lot on policy

Vanessa:

and where others would like to maybe focus more on mutual aid and

Vanessa:

localized responses and that's okay.

Vanessa:

And others will like for and a stronger association to represent their interest

Vanessa:

that is older and more traditional.

Vanessa:

And that's fine cuz at the same time we all gonna be fighting

Vanessa:

for the same thing in the farm.

Vanessa:

We're gonna be fighting for more resources.

Vanessa:

For farmers and for rural American to keep our families fed.

Vanessa:

Because we all need a farm bill, we just gonna disagree on the details.

Vanessa:

So I think that's the beauty of the organizing in agriculture.

Vanessa:

But I also, you mentioned triggers and I think there are many things

Vanessa:

that we all agree that are important.

Vanessa:

And for example, is there farmer Stress Assistance Network called

Vanessa:

farson that's in a specific grant that the United State Government created

Vanessa:

to support farmer mental health and farm work and mental health.

Vanessa:

And that is a program that it has completely bipartisan support.

Vanessa:

All farm organizations support it because we all want more resources for farmers.

Vanessa:

So things like that we all agree on what is needed so we can better

Vanessa:

equip our farmers to be successful.

Vanessa:

That's just an example.

Caite:

So what sorts of.

Caite:

Programs and legislation, would people be surprised to hear

Caite:

are included in a farm bill?

Caite:

Because I know that there are always things that are in a farm bill that

Caite:

just seem surprising or unexpected.

Caite:

So I'm wondering what's snuck in here this year that we don't know about yet?

Caite:

Because it seems like there's always something.

Vanessa:

I don't think we have anything controversial yet.

Vanessa:

Also just to give you an idea of the timeline for this year, right

Vanessa:

now we are in market avail season.

Vanessa:

So on for now until annual March, people are gonna be introducing bail.

Vanessa:

So things they want the farm bill.

Vanessa:

Then it's gonna go to markup.

Vanessa:

That means the committee's gonna discuss if Ida proposal is worth

Vanessa:

it to be making to the farm bill.

Vanessa:

And then we will have an actual farm bill written by the summer.

Vanessa:

That's the hope.

Vanessa:

And then they will, it will get boarded on by the house and the Senate, and then it

Vanessa:

will go to conference, or what we usually call reconciliation, when they will

Vanessa:

actually decide if it's something that the house voted versus the house voted, how it

Vanessa:

can be merged, how it can be reconciled.

Vanessa:

So a lot of, right now we, most of advocacy groups are young farmers.

Vanessa:

We have, or less of things that we want.

Vanessa:

So right now we are working with elected officials to see if we can

Vanessa:

get a marker well, to see if some of those weird things or crazy

Vanessa:

things can actually be introduced.

Vanessa:

Because if they're not introduced they're just a, they're in

Vanessa:

a piece of paper in my desk.

Vanessa:

They're not actually being considered by elected officials.

Vanessa:

For example, last week we got the justice for black farmers at re introduced.

Vanessa:

That was in re introduced two years ago, and now it's actually.

Vanessa:

Has a potential to be considered because it's a market bill in a farm bill year.

Vanessa:

And for many folks that Bill is really transformative and really outlandish.

Vanessa:

And we don't know if it's gonna, if it's gonna move forward, but it's there.

Vanessa:

And now we can even consider it during a farm bill year.

Vanessa:

And there will be many more bills, like data will be introduced

Vanessa:

to push the boundaries of what the farm bill can look like.

Vanessa:

But there will be simple bills, like literally changing one or two

Vanessa:

words in one sentence of a program.

Vanessa:

Of a program that will probably increase access or will change who

Vanessa:

is eligible or increase the payments.

Vanessa:

And also those bills are really important because they change programmatic things.

Vanessa:

They're working or not working.

Vanessa:

So I think we need to keep ourselves realistic that the Farm bill is

Vanessa:

an opportunity to do nitty gritty.

Vanessa:

Good things, but also to push the envelope a lot.

Vanessa:

And every farm Bill has an opportunity to drainage our

Vanessa:

food supply in our food system.

Vanessa:

For example, in the 2018 Farm Bill, we got the Office of Urban Agriculture,

Vanessa:

which we never had before, and that was authorized in 2018 and the office has

Vanessa:

been running now for the past two years.

Vanessa:

So things like that are really exciting that we did in a farm bill and now we have

Vanessa:

it and we will continue investing on it.

Vanessa:

God willingly.

Caite:

Am I right too in thinking that both the supplemental nutrition

Caite:

program and the school lunch program or through the Farm Bill, or are they

Caite:

just through the Department of Ag?

Vanessa:

I believe they're under agriculture.

Vanessa:

The only one that is outside of Farm is child nutrition, if I remember

Caite:

correctly.

Caite:

Yeah, I feel like that's an unexpected one for a lot of

Caite:

folks that those are under the.

Caite:

Egg instead of human services.

Caite:

But yeah, it is what it's,

Vanessa:

yeah, but also there's a lot of people who wish farm workers were on their

Vanessa:

the farm bill and they're not right now.

Vanessa:

Wish many of us are like, we wish it was there.

Vanessa:

It will be so much easier to actually do things.

Vanessa:

But they're not, they're outside the jurisdiction on the farm.

Caite:

Who are they under the jurisdiction of them?

Caite:

Department of Labor.

Caite:

That's doesn't make any sense.

Caite:

It doesn't.

Caite:

So here we are, government.

Caite:

Okay.

Arlene:

So Vanessa, how does your experience as an immigrant

Arlene:

to the US inform your work?

Arlene:

I know you do a lot of volunteer work as well, so how does your background as an

Arlene:

immigrant inform the way you use your time for both volunteering and your paid work?

Vanessa:

Definitely.

Vanessa:

I would say I.

Vanessa:

When people ask me what is my community obviously I can always say Dominican,

Vanessa:

but I actually, since the moment I'm migrated, I have never been surrounded

Vanessa:

by a lot of Dominicans, only my family.

Vanessa:

So I always say my community is the food and agriculture space

Vanessa:

because I feel that's the community that receive me and welcome me.

Vanessa:

But at the same time, I know that I also have a lot of privilege when we know 80%

Vanessa:

of food system workers look like me, brown and woman and immigrant, but they do know

Vanessa:

of them get to lobby in Washington, DC to change the conditions or food system.

Vanessa:

So for me it's also knowing that I have a lot of privilege, but also that my

Vanessa:

identities and experiences allow me.

Vanessa:

To champion for things that a lot of people like me don't get to champion for.

Vanessa:

And that's also one of the reasons that I'm in the coalition because a lot of our

Vanessa:

members are first generation immigrants or the children or immigrants that wanna stay

Vanessa:

connected to their agrarian background.

Vanessa:

And also because we do have an intersectional vision the farm workers

Vanessa:

are the future of our food system.

Vanessa:

And there are many things that we need to change in our food system to

Vanessa:

reduce the harm and oppression for people who have been the so that's

Vanessa:

something I always keep in mind.

Vanessa:

As an immigrant, as I navigate my work there's not a lot of people like us.

Vanessa:

There's actually, I met really few Dominicans that do my job.

Vanessa:

But it's also really exciting, that I, not just Dominican, also an

Vanessa:

immigrant, a woman and Afro-Latina.

Vanessa:

So it's also bringing all those identities and experiences and.

Vanessa:

Even other identities, like I'm from the I say I'm from Rhode Island.

Vanessa:

When I ask, where are you from?

Vanessa:

I say, I Rhode Island and Dominican, a little bit of the Midwest because

Vanessa:

I lived there for two years.

Vanessa:

And all those identities you bring to your work.

Vanessa:

So you always have to remember that you have to bring your full

Vanessa:

self and your authentic self.

Arlene:

You've mentioned the term food system a few times, and I

Arlene:

don't know that's something that we in agriculture always think about.

Arlene:

Can you define what the food system incorporates?

Arlene:

Because I think a lot of us as primary producers just think of our role as, we

Arlene:

grow, we raise the food and people eat it.

Arlene:

But the food system is more complex than that.

Vanessa:

Yeah, definitely.

Vanessa:

And I always like, think we cannot think on silos when it always need to be

Vanessa:

thinking intersectional and systems-wide.

Vanessa:

So when we, when I say food system, I actually think everything from.

Vanessa:

Inputs in the production to waste management of that food that we, that

Vanessa:

you grow and everything in between.

Vanessa:

And that is bottlenecks in distribution and processing how we access food

Vanessa:

through supermarkets, farmer's markets, and how we handle the byproducts of

Vanessa:

consuming that food, like food waste encompass composting, other natural

Vanessa:

resources that are part of that.

Vanessa:

And obviously the policy.

Vanessa:

All of this is happening under an economic policy regime.

Vanessa:

So we have to be thinking about what policies enable food production,

Vanessa:

what policies allow for food access.

Vanessa:

And all of that is thinking about the food system as an interconnected regime.

Vanessa:

Something that is happening in silos.

Vanessa:

And I think we all gotten better at thinking about food as a

Vanessa:

part of our system during the pandemic when we're like, I.

Vanessa:

Farmers are producing food, but where's my food?

Vanessa:

It's not in the supermarket.

Vanessa:

So people realizing that the many waves and the, or food moves and food supply

Vanessa:

change and the interconnectors all that on, I think it's moments like that we

Vanessa:

need to push ourselves to be thinking.

Vanessa:

It is a system.

Vanessa:

So I will love that.

Vanessa:

The farm bill will not be called a farm bill.

Vanessa:

I would love it to be called a food systems bill.

Vanessa:

Because there are things on the farm will like exports and trade

Vanessa:

that you will never think going back to your previous questions.

Vanessa:

There are also governed by those laws.

Vanessa:

And it's because we are, we think about food holistically in a

Vanessa:

cycle, not just in production.

Vanessa:

If, we would just, if it was actually a farm bill, it will only be, it will

Vanessa:

be like maybe a quarter of that bell.

Vanessa:

There's 13 titles in that bill.

Vanessa:

So we had to think about all the things, production,

Vanessa:

conservation, soil so many things.

Vanessa:

When we're thinking about food.

Vanessa:

So that's why I prefer to say food system or like food and agriculture sometimes.

Arlene:

Yeah, that makes a

Vanessa:

lot of sense.

Caite:

So as both Americans, and I think it's similar in

Caite:

Canada there seems to be a real

Caite:

lack of acknowledgement of how, of the importance of

Caite:

immigrants in our food system.

Caite:

And is someone who, lives in a town with a processing plant.

Caite:

And I know that the, what people picture when they think of someone who's

Caite:

involved in ag in us is a white man in his sixties in overalls with a straw

Caite:

hat, and Certainly looking around our processing plants and our dairies and

Caite:

our fields that's not what the face of American agriculture looks like.

Caite:

I'm wondering what we can do both to draw awareness to that and to really push

Caite:

for some immigration reform because this whole, bringing people here illegally

Caite:

so we can exploit them is bullshit.

Caite:

And it is not a system I am proud to be part of.

Caite:

And whether people want to admit that our system depends on those immigrants

Caite:

or not, doesn't really matter because it does whether they like it or not.

Caite:

And so it would really be nice to reform it in a way that all people have.

Caite:

Access to social programs and safety through being able to call

Caite:

the police without worrying about getting deported and whatever else.

Caite:

So I'm wondering where there are weak spots that are more effective

Caite:

for us to lean on towards actually getting some changes made.

Caite:

Yeah.

Caite:

I don't like it and I don't like it.

Caite:

Let's just put it that way.

Caite:

It's bullshit.

Caite:

We should be decent to other humans.

Caite:

It doesn't feel like it should be a big debate.

Caite:

Anyway.

Vanessa:

What I had to say.

Vanessa:

Aside from immigrants themselves and immigrant communities, iactually,

Vanessa:

farm farmers, one of some of the biggest allies for immigration reform

Vanessa:

because they understand the need.

Vanessa:

I have met farmers in Michigan and Vermont.

Vanessa:

They are like, I need, we need to normalize this.

Vanessa:

We need to regular regularize the status, the way we, we need reform.

Vanessa:

Because they understand the challenges, they understand the supply chain

Vanessa:

issues, they understand labor shortages they understand the economics of it.

Vanessa:

And at the same time they, they're really passionate about agriculture

Vanessa:

and they're passionate about working.

Vanessa:

We, our immigrant.

Vanessa:

Communities and partners as partners for food production to keep our families fed.

Vanessa:

But as you said, it's really challenging when so many people, I

Vanessa:

still have this idea what an American farmer guess is and gets to be.

Vanessa:

And obviously a lot of that time we like power dynamics and branding.

Vanessa:

A lot of this big farm groups have perpetuated who this

Vanessa:

idea who gets to be a farmer.

Vanessa:

And I think that's why I appreciate so much what my team does that is always

Vanessa:

having these beautiful graphics or farmers because we need to be challenging people

Vanessa:

and elected officials on how does a farmer look like and how does a farm look like?

Vanessa:

Because we do know a lot of farm workers still keep a farm on the side and do

Vanessa:

like really extensive gardening, even when they're working as farm workers.

Vanessa:

But we do not consider the agriculture sometimes.

Vanessa:

So we need to be pushing those narratives on who is a farmer and who gets.

Vanessa:

What does a farm look like in your cognitive brain?

Vanessa:

And give a lot of dissonance and discomfort to people.

Vanessa:

And a lot of what I do is that in DC I literally go to members

Vanessa:

of congress office and be like, this is what my farmer looks like.

Vanessa:

They're growing 30 different crops.

Vanessa:

They're first iteration Latino, Mexican, Mexican-American and

Vanessa:

they're selling other farmers market.

Vanessa:

And they go what?

Vanessa:

They're not growing corn.

Vanessa:

And they have not been farming here for six generations.

Vanessa:

Yeah, I know.

Vanessa:

So it's a lot of, we need to be challenging ourselves too.

Vanessa:

Dismantle this idea.

Vanessa:

And also a lot of what I do is actually just taking a lot

Vanessa:

of pictures of me at work.

Vanessa:

Like a lot of people don't believe that I get to do what I do and I say,

Vanessa:

yeah, this is what a policy director or a forming organization looks like.

Vanessa:

It's me.

Vanessa:

I'm brown.

Vanessa:

With currently hair and a young immigrant, you get to see a,

Vanessa:

I'm in the host of Congress.

Vanessa:

We need to be, we need to be doing the really aggressive PR campaign,

Vanessa:

but also this narrative change that immigrants feed us and immigrants

Vanessa:

are needed in our food supply chain, across our food system in every step

Vanessa:

from production, from processing, for distribution, from supermarkets to,

Vanessa:

and waste management is everywhere.

Vanessa:

We are everywhere and we need to do better completely.

Vanessa:

We need to do better.

Vanessa:

And last year we can close.

Vanessa:

Last year we, in United States, we had a farm worker organization head.

Vanessa:

That has been tried to get passed for 12, 14 years now.

Vanessa:

And last year we came really close.

Vanessa:

Like negotiations were really high.

Vanessa:

We were making a lot of progress, but unfortunately felt true.

Vanessa:

And the proposal will create pretty better working conditions for a lot of workers.

Vanessa:

Increased gas visa enables actually provide a path to citizenship

Vanessa:

for many undocumented farmed workers in the United States.

Vanessa:

But unfortunately it felt true.

Vanessa:

But now we have a new Congress so we can start all over

Vanessa:

again cuz that's what we do.

Vanessa:

Boom.

Vanessa:

Again, all of that can take forever.

Vanessa:

I obviously wish we could do an amnesty tomorrow.

Vanessa:

And we can normalize all those individuals are contributing

Vanessa:

so much to our food system.

Vanessa:

But we can need to keep pushing those narratives.

Vanessa:

We need to keep reminding people that immigrants feed us and

Vanessa:

immigrants are important for food and agriculture and for our national

Vanessa:

security for the future of America.

Vanessa:

Cuz we know from research that if we farm workers are allowed to become citizens

Vanessa:

or residents, they're al they're also likely to also become farm owners.

Vanessa:

And when we have so many white men in our roles in sixties about to retire,

Vanessa:

we need to be creating a pipeline of the next generation of farmers,

Vanessa:

farm workers who wanna take over our

Caite:

farms.

Caite:

It seems like too, so much of that plays into talking about a food system rather

Caite:

than just farm ownership because it's, it doesn't matter how many chickens I

Caite:

raise if I can't get them processed.

Caite:

And I don't.

Caite:

I'm going to assume it's that we just don't challenge people to

Caite:

think about how crops get harvested.

Caite:

And I know there's a lot, I don't know about how all sorts of crops

Caite:

get raised because I live in Iowa and we don't grow that stuff.

Caite:

But it's not like celery flies out of the fields and just like transports

Caite:

to the grocery store by itself.

Caite:

There are all these people here and I feel not to get too Woo about it, but when we

Caite:

say that the American dream is that you come here and you work really hard and you

Caite:

have a family and you work hard some more and your kids are doing better than you

Caite:

are and maybe you open a business and you settle down and you buy a house, whatever,

Caite:

that, that is the American dream.

Caite:

And to have people coming here and doing all of that and then

Caite:

saying, no, you still can't.

Caite:

Be citizens and there is no way for you to become citizens is

Caite:

really obnoxious and offensive.

Caite:

And if people are good enough to come here and bust their asses to feed us,

Caite:

it seems like they should be good enough to be allowed to stay here without

Caite:

being afraid of what will happen.

Caite:

Living the town that I live closest to now was subject to a huge ice

Caite:

raid almost 20 years ago now.

Caite:

And seeing what it did to this community is terrifying.

Caite:

And, they came and raid to meet plant while kids were at school.

Caite:

So kids came home and their parents had been arrested and

Caite:

just what that was like and.

Caite:

I find it offensive on a personal level to think that people work

Caite:

this hard to feed us and we're just like, meh, we can replace you.

Caite:

That's not who I want to be, and that's not who I wanna raise my children to be.

Caite:

So as a, I think especially as a parent, it is really hit home to me about

Caite:

what we're raising our kids to see.

Caite:

Farms and food systems.

Caite:

As, so

Vanessa:

unfortunately, most of us as eaters and as consumers in the American

Vanessa:

food will complicit Oh, perpetrating this.

Vanessa:

But at the same time, we, many of us have the tools to advocate for it to change.

Vanessa:

And obviously it all depends.

Vanessa:

I find citizen to be a really triggering word because who gets to be a citizen

Vanessa:

is Police, and it has changed so much over the history of America.

Vanessa:

But at the same time, it's also a reminder it comes with privileges that others do

Vanessa:

not have in our society that is really hierarchical about immigration status.

Vanessa:

And we know that depending on your language and your immigration status

Vanessa:

and in your gender, the things that you have access to do and to

Vanessa:

become in American agriculture, I completely stratify differently.

Vanessa:

So I think we need to remember that we, a lot of that guilt also comes

Vanessa:

a lot of privilege and we need to use it to change and transform.

Vanessa:

Our food system is asking the farms that we work with.

Vanessa:

What are your hiring practices?

Vanessa:

What are your labor practices?

Vanessa:

Are you advocating for H two O reform?

Vanessa:

Are you advocating for immigration reform?

Vanessa:

Because we do have a responsibility to our community members.

Vanessa:

To say that you belong here, you are feeding us.

Vanessa:

And when things need to change, we cannot set this as the norm.

Vanessa:

But in America's just so easy, even in America, this is part of the global food

Vanessa:

system because Mexican farm workers are feeding Canadians, trans trans student,

Vanessa:

and many other things around the world.

Vanessa:

The world I think we just need to, work every day to build a food system that

Vanessa:

we want to and challenge it exactly as you're saying, not take that guilt

Vanessa:

towards action and challenge it.

Arlene:

We're all taking a big sigh here.

Arlene:

So when I was looking into your work a little bit, you ha you were

Arlene:

on your website, you, there was a section about a workshop that you

Arlene:

run called Food is Never Just Food.

Arlene:

And I feel like we've already talked about that issue, that food isn't just food.

Arlene:

But can you tell us a little bit more about that workshop?

Arlene:

Workshop and what.

Arlene:

What, who are you're communicating that to and what your message is.

Vanessa:

Yeah, definitely.

Vanessa:

So I had done that workshop now for almost six years, more or less.

Vanessa:

Oh yeah.

Vanessa:

And that's when I was studying like food and agriculture and undergrad.

Vanessa:

And it was really, it's, the premises is really easy.

Vanessa:

Some of us use food to understand society and citizen of power oppression.

Vanessa:

And when I think about an apple or breakfast or any meal, I think about

Vanessa:

it, who gets to eat the food and why?

Vanessa:

And what has led to that food to be this way?

Vanessa:

What are the policies that have enabled this?

Vanessa:

What are the social contrasts that have enabled this?

Vanessa:

What are the stereotypes that have enabled this idea?

Vanessa:

So a lot of what I do in that workshop is just to teach people to

Vanessa:

think critically about food and to write their experiences, especially

Vanessa:

for immigrants and young people.

Vanessa:

And especially the emotional part, I think.

Vanessa:

It's so easy to talk to about food.

Vanessa:

Like what do you have for breakfast?

Vanessa:

What do you have for dinner?

Vanessa:

What is your favorite food?

Vanessa:

Sometimes we forget to attach the meanings, the emotions, the history,

Vanessa:

the stories, and the history that come when we talk about food.

Vanessa:

So a lot of what I do in that workshop is just to push people to write.

Vanessa:

I'm gonna give you an apple.

Vanessa:

Tell me anything you want about the apple, any memories you have about

Vanessa:

the apple, and then I'm gonna tell you about how specialty crop production

Vanessa:

enables so much apple production in certain parts of the country.

Vanessa:

So it's as this idea or doing almost like a stu speech about your

Vanessa:

connection to food and to encourage you to see food as an opportunity for

Vanessa:

your, for you to engage civically.

Vanessa:

Because I do not believe, maybe, I'm not sure that I will be as an

Vanessa:

engaged civically and politically if I haven't found a home in

Vanessa:

food and agriculture advocacy.

Vanessa:

So this is my way to encourage other people to be passionate about food, but

Vanessa:

also passionate about food advocacy.

Caite:

I'm going to, I'm gonna add a question here because

Caite:

I just thought about it.

Caite:

Anyone who's involved in community building and advocacy and the

Caite:

sort of work, as you mentioned, goes to a lot of potlucks.

Caite:

I'm wondering what your go-to potluck dish is talking about the importance,

Caite:

the emotional importance of food.

Caite:

Because going to a potluck where everything is terrible is the

Caite:

worst, like solidly the worst.

Caite:

So I'm wondering if you can give us some new ideas for stuff to take to potlucks.

Caite:

Oh my

Vanessa:

God.

Caite:

Plus, I dunno if it's different in Rhode Island, it seems like maybe

Caite:

less jello salad than there is.

Caite:

Oh yeah.

Caite:

What is

Vanessa:

yours?

Vanessa:

Jello salad.

Caite:

Food advocacy in Iowa doesn't get jello salad, but a

Caite:

lot of other community events do.

Caite:

I

Vanessa:

just have to say farmer pubs I the best food I ever ate in my life.

Vanessa:

A farmer's pubs, they're like salads.

Vanessa:

They live for free in my mind and in my memory that I ate a young

Vanessa:

farmer's potlucks five years ago.

Vanessa:

So farmers are amazing cooks.

Vanessa:

That's all I'm gonna say.

Vanessa:

I don't think I can give you my go-to because I think it's

Vanessa:

all depends on the season.

Vanessa:

It depends on what I have in reading.

Vanessa:

It depends what is what I have in the kitchen.

Vanessa:

And also I realize, I feel I, I host a lot of people for dinner,

Vanessa:

but I don't go to a lot of potlucks.

Vanessa:

For example, the last party that I drew, it was a brunch and I made Manu.

Vanessa:

That is Dominican mash plantains, we onions and butter.

Vanessa:

And it was winter, so I could get away with that.

Vanessa:

But if we have in summer, we're on something else.

Vanessa:

Like I dressed strawberry party once because it was a strawberry season.

Vanessa:

So That

Caite:

sounds amazing.

Caite:

Yeah, I have to say too, when you said that about salads living free in your

Caite:

brain, I still have fond memories of a beat and quinoa salad that I had

Caite:

at a beginning Farmer's conference like eight years ago probably.

Caite:

And I still think about it on a fairly regular basis because it was really good.

Caite:

Okay, so aside from that, back to what's actually, on our list, what

Caite:

are you working on right now and what are your goals going forward, both

Caite:

shorter term and what's the big goal?

Caite:

What's the, you'll die happy if they put this on your tombstone sort of a.

Caite:

Yeah, what's the big one?

Caite:

I know you're ready for this.

Caite:

It's,

Vanessa:

I have been trying to write a book about Maya guy in my advice for young

Vanessa:

people how to get involved in food system.

Vanessa:

It's really hard but it's something I'm working on and I, hopefully

Vanessa:

it'll be done by the time I turn 30.

Vanessa:

That's my personal goal.

Vanessa:

In a more immediate short go, short goal, my goal is to get a marker valve

Vanessa:

introduced in the next two months so we can get a program that focuses

Vanessa:

on lung access for young farmers.

Vanessa:

That's my priority for the next two months and for the rest of

Vanessa:

this year, and a farm bill year.

Vanessa:

So I think those two things can go in my tostone.

Vanessa:

Let's see which one will will make it.

Caite:

I like the idea of an advice book that also had recipes.

Caite:

For things like having people over and potlucks and maybe a regional

Caite:

potluck directory of things that will go over well in different places

Caite:

in case you end up, maybe that's your book, Katie Jealous Salad.

Caite:

I think that's your book.

Caite:

I will, twist my arm, undertake the research necessary to travel the world.

Caite:

Going to potlucks and seeing what people eat different places.

Caite:

Yes.

Caite:

You volunteer

Arlene:

for that?

Vanessa:

Yes.

Vanessa:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

Can only be a farmer potluck.

Arlene:

That's the, yeah, just, yeah, just farmer ones.

Arlene:

Yeah, for sure.

Arlene:

So I guess that leads well into, we are a parenting podcast and so what, not to take

Arlene:

the whole plot of your book obviously, but what tips do you have for young people

Arlene:

if we have, we've got kids, our listeners have kids who, you know, even if they're

Arlene:

not involved in production agriculture, I think a lot of us hope that our kids will

Arlene:

take what they've learned on the farm and bring it into their careers in some way.

Arlene:

So what advice would you have for people, for young people who are

Arlene:

thinking about getting involved in ag in a, in different parts of the system?

Vanessa:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

The first one is volunteer.

Vanessa:

Find your community, find your corner.

Vanessa:

There's always people doing amazing stuff and you don't have to replicate the wheel.

Vanessa:

Just have to join the movement and the momentum and find your niche at it.

Vanessa:

I think for me, it's really gratifying to, I remember five years ago being at

Vanessa:

conferences, being afraid to talk to the speaker because I thought they were

Vanessa:

like someone really famous in food, in agriculture, and now I talk to him every

Vanessa:

day on my dms because we're good friends.

Vanessa:

So it's amazing to me.

Vanessa:

How easy it's to build a community, but you can only build a community for

Vanessa:

your intentional and if you are brave.

Vanessa:

So my advice to all your people is you need to be brave.

Vanessa:

You need to get outta your comfort zone, and you need to

Vanessa:

be willing to public speak.

Vanessa:

You need to be willing to write, you need to be willing to say things

Vanessa:

that make other people uncomfortable.

Vanessa:

I describe my job as making people uncomfortable because I'm always

Vanessa:

asking hard questions like, is that really the best program that

Vanessa:

you can do for young farmers?

Vanessa:

Is that the best outreach that you can do to a farmer of color?

Vanessa:

That's literally the question I ask everyone every single day to

Vanessa:

every elected officials, to everyone at U S D A every single day.

Vanessa:

So you have to get really comfortable using your voice and

Vanessa:

being courageous and being brave.

Arlene:

That's good advice for someone of any age.

Caite:

I really appreciate that you're doing this work.

Caite:

It's we need more people asking if that's really the best you can do,

Caite:

because I think too many people are.

Caite:

Told to quit being pushy and sit down and appreciate what you have.

Caite:

You can appreciate what you have and still ask if that's really the

Caite:

best that someone can do, become a

Vanessa:

lobbyist.

Vanessa:

That's the, that's what I get to do.

Arlene:

So in terms of volunteering, do you have any, your kind of top five

Arlene:

organizations that if someone was, felt like they were wanting to make a

Arlene:

difference but didn't know where to start, what are some organizations that you

Arlene:

feel like people can really get involved in and make a difference if they're

Arlene:

looking to give their time in some way.

Vanessa:

Definitely, I would say always keep a local.

Vanessa:

There are so many great stuff happening in our communities.

Vanessa:

Like I did a lot of local stuff before.

Vanessa:

Obviously I came to DC in Royal Island.

Vanessa:

My office or my major had a special volunteer program just for kids.

Vanessa:

And I did that for several years.

Vanessa:

And then they asked me to run the farmer's market.

Vanessa:

And then I ran the farmer's market for four years.

Vanessa:

And then after that they asked me to join the Shamrock Commerce Board, and

Vanessa:

then I joined the Food Policy Council.

Vanessa:

So all those things, officer, the major youth programs food

Vanessa:

policy council, farmer's markets, Shamrock Commerce, they're probably

Vanessa:

happening in your community already.

Vanessa:

You have to find them and find opportunities to plug in.

Vanessa:

So I definitely recommend those at the localized level.

Vanessa:

And also when it comes more to food and agriculture space most of

Vanessa:

the more traditional associations.

Vanessa:

We'll have members or we'll have chapters in some states, like National Young

Vanessa:

Farmers Coalition, we have 45 chapters.

Vanessa:

But even if you wanna get involved and there's no chapter in your

Vanessa:

place, you can start a chapter or you can just be a general member.

Vanessa:

So even if there's a place where you don't have that community, you can still

Vanessa:

be plugged into the national community.

Vanessa:

Because at Temple we do a lot of fellowships.

Vanessa:

So we have national fellows.

Vanessa:

They are not together geographically, but they come together once a month

Vanessa:

to talk about different issues.

Vanessa:

And they get trained in public speaking, they get trained in policy.

Vanessa:

They're coming to DC next month to come to their elected officials.

Vanessa:

So don't think geo, think geographically first and community

Vanessa:

first, but don't let that limit you.

Vanessa:

Some of my best friends and my people that I organized the most, we had never

Vanessa:

been in the same geographic area together.

Vanessa:

We are.

Vanessa:

One is New York, one is in the Dominican Republic, one is in Europe.

Vanessa:

But we are organizing together towards the same goals.

Vanessa:

So think geographically, but also think that your community is not

Vanessa:

limited to that geographic area.

Caite:

I can say too, as someone who's been involved in a fair number

Caite:

of community things, that if people are worried about putting themselves

Caite:

out there, I have never yet met a community group that says we have

Caite:

enough people, we have enough members.

Caite:

We are not, we don't need anybody new.

Caite:

Every community group that I've met has loved having new folks come in.

Caite:

It's, yeah.

Caite:

But

Vanessa:

I actually wanna warm about that.

Vanessa:

I have experience, I have experienced gate keeping and it's really hard.

Vanessa:

It's really sad because there were spaces where I wanted to volunteer more.

Vanessa:

I wanted to give more, and they were, they wouldn't let me.

Vanessa:

They were gatekeepers.

Vanessa:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

And no, that's, And especially when you're young with a lot of energy, wanna change

Vanessa:

things, you're gonna find gatekeepers.

Vanessa:

So you have to be ready for that.

Vanessa:

But in that moment you have to decide.

Vanessa:

Do you wanna invest in then, or you wanna maybe, I usually try to avoid telling

Vanessa:

people, go and create your own thing.

Vanessa:

But there are moments you have to go and create your own thing.

Vanessa:

If day gatekeepers won't let you in, just go find another table or

Vanessa:

build that table, because some people will never let you sit at the table.

Vanessa:

But you had to know.

Vanessa:

You had to know you, you had to know.

Vanessa:

And it, there were some spaces that took me out a long time to be

Vanessa:

like, actually, this is not where my time, this is actually really

Vanessa:

draining me on wasting my time.

Vanessa:

And then I change course.

Vanessa:

And I was literally given no sit at the table.

Vanessa:

They were letting me run the meetings.

Vanessa:

So things like that you have to know.

Vanessa:

But you also need to have, you need to have a body check system.

Vanessa:

Is this really the right space for me?

Vanessa:

Oh, can you validate if you also feel like this?

Vanessa:

Are we wasting our time here?

Vanessa:

So you need to also watch out their gatekeepers.

Vanessa:

But you also don't let us stop you.

Caite:

That's a great point because honestly, I have an immense amount

Caite:

of privilege in this space because I'm a middle-aged white lady.

Caite:

And I still encounter some amount of gatekeeping, so I can only

Caite:

imagine what it's like for anyone who doesn't have the privilege of

Caite:

being a middle-aged white lady.

Caite:

But yeah, there's definitely.

Caite:

If people want to gate keep, you can tell 'em to f off because there are

Caite:

plenty of other groups that would love to have your enthusiasm and

Caite:

your energy and your dedication.

Caite:

And if there aren't, you can start your own, which is also a great point.

Caite:

So yes, thank you for reminding us of that because it is, it's easy not to

Caite:

notice gatekeeping that doesn't apply to you and it's good to be reminded of it.

Vanessa:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

And also I think we also have to remember if you, if you're in a

Vanessa:

position on gatekeeping, you also have a responsibility to open the door.

Vanessa:

I was appointed, I think, to the Shamrock Commerce because the

Vanessa:

director literally called me and fought for me to have a spot.

Vanessa:

I was 18.

Vanessa:

I was not even thinking of serving a non-profit board.

Vanessa:

But you also had to realize you also have a lot of privilege.

Vanessa:

And a lot of access that you can avoid gate keeping by

Vanessa:

actually being an open door.

Vanessa:

I dunno what is the opposite of gatekeeper?

Vanessa:

A door opener.

Arlene:

Someone who's got the key, I don't know.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

We get, we understand the metaphor.

Caite:

Yeah.

Caite:

It's the gatekeeper leaves the gate open and then goes out and finds more people

Caite:

and shelves have been through the gate.

Caite:

Hopefully like a friendly, welcoming way and not in a haha sucker,

Caite:

you're on the board now kinda way,

Vanessa:

but it's ok.

Vanessa:

We need that.

Vanessa:

Need that sometimes.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

Or take the gate right off the hinges.

Arlene:

Something like that.

Caite:

I like that.

Caite:

We don't need it.

Caite:

The gate dismantler.

Caite:

Be the person who leaves the gate open.

Caite:

It's bad on the farm.

Caite:

It's good in community.

Caite:

Yeah, that's right.

Arlene:

Not if you've got cows.

Caite:

Yeah, I like that one.

Caite:

Open gates bad for cows.

Caite:

Good for people.

Caite:

I like that.

Caite:

There you go.

Caite:

Yeah, that's right.

Caite:

Just pick your, the title of our book, Arlene.

Arlene:

There you go.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

So one more parenting related question because I'm always trying to figure out

Arlene:

ways to tie it back to our other aspect of our podcast, which is the parenting piece.

Arlene:

How did your parents and your family help to foster your independence?

Arlene:

If you're on the Chamber of Commerce at 18, that means you've got some big

Arlene:

cheerleaders, I'm guessing, in your house.

Arlene:

So how did your family support you and help create the person that you are?

Arlene:

Because we wanna try and make kids who turn out like you.

Vanessa:

Honestly, I lived by example.

Vanessa:

My dad was part of the rotaries growing up.

Vanessa:

And my dad is such a like service C person, like really always

Vanessa:

doing something for someone else.

Vanessa:

And my mom is the same.

Vanessa:

My mom was an educator in the Dominican Republic and she was always volunteering,

Vanessa:

working on political campaigns helping young people with their problems.

Vanessa:

And then when we moved to the United States, they completely changed my mom,

Vanessa:

especially cuz my dad stayed in the er.

Vanessa:

And I literally reco.

Vanessa:

It took me a few years to recognize, but I literally became

Vanessa:

my parents in the United States.

Vanessa:

And obviously for them, they were like, why are you always in a meeting?

Vanessa:

Why are you always volunteering?

Vanessa:

But at the same time they're really proud of me and they're

Vanessa:

my, and it's not just my parents.

Vanessa:

Like my uncles will drive me to meetings, they will drive me to volunteering.

Vanessa:

So at the end it's just creating a family culture where.

Vanessa:

Service is expected and service is part of what is to be a family.

Vanessa:

And I think for me, that was really obvious growing up.

Vanessa:

So it was just a matter of doing it.

Vanessa:

When I migrated to the do to the United States obviously

Vanessa:

they're immensely proud of me.

Vanessa:

And they used in awe because I grew up really shelter.

Vanessa:

Like I was not allowed to go out late or do many things that are

Vanessa:

like normal for American kids.

Vanessa:

I growing a really Catholic, Dominican household and my mom sometimes just

Vanessa:

sits in the couch some days when I send her a picture of me giving a keynote

Vanessa:

being like, how did this happen?

Vanessa:

And I'm like, because you did the, you did, you had the right measure

Vanessa:

of restraining independence.

Vanessa:

We always say for example, my mom didn't want me to go to away to college that

Vanessa:

was 45 minutes away in Rhode Island.

Vanessa:

She wanted me to go to community college and I will always remember my

Vanessa:

being like, You have to let her go.

Vanessa:

She needs to grow.

Vanessa:

It was like that right measure.

Vanessa:

Like I will see my mom every weekend cuz they will come visit me.

Vanessa:

I will come back.

Vanessa:

It was 45 minutes away, but they still trusted me to live far away.

Vanessa:

So is that right?

Vanessa:

Amount of independence and constraint.

Caite:

I think if your kids are rebelling by getting involved

Caite:

in community organizing and lobbying, you're doing a good job.

Caite:

Please tell your parents thank you because I'm impressed by this.

Caite:

The third kid rebelled by getting more involved in the community.

Caite:

Like

Vanessa:

I talked about, again, they said that example, that

Vanessa:

was the only option for me.

Vanessa:

Oh, you want, you wanna, you want me to be serious?

Vanessa:

I wanna do exactly what you do, volunteer a thousand hours a week.

Arlene:

Yeah, that's right.

Arlene:

I don't need you to drive me to parties, but I need you to

Arlene:

drive me to these meetings.

Caite:

So we ask all of our guests, if you were going to dominate a category

Caite:

at the county fair, what would it be?

Caite:

And it can be real or made up.

Vanessa:

One of my passion projects is agno botany.

Vanessa:

So like in her, so I would love a category of doing the best, like

Vanessa:

the best tonic or like the best plan ID or something like that.

Vanessa:

And training to be a certified herbalist.

Vanessa:

So I will have a category of guess the plan, what are the uses, who uses it?

Vanessa:

Something like that.

Vanessa:

I dunno, if's a real category in the county fair.

Arlene:

Hey, you can, yeah, we say you can make it up so you win.

Arlene:

And that sounds like a really good one.

Arlene:

I would not be any good at it, so I wouldn't even compete with you.

Vanessa:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

So really influenced my, not my reading, but how I think of life is

Vanessa:

the work called Table Butler and she always said, you have to be ready.

Vanessa:

If you society were to crumble tomorrow, what skill do you have?

Vanessa:

And obviously as a person who works with farmers, they can all grow food.

Vanessa:

I can't, I am not that good of a grower disclaimer, so I'm always

Vanessa:

like, let me know plans in botany and their uses like Herbo uses.

Vanessa:

So that's my contribution in society.

Vanessa:

Were to crumble tomorrow.

Vanessa:

Yeah.

Arlene:

We all have to play our part, right?

Caite:

You don't have to be self-sufficient, you just have to have a

Caite:

skill that is valuable to other people.

Caite:

Just one.

Caite:

Just one.

Arlene:

All right.

Arlene:

So we will move into our cussing and discussing segment.

Arlene:

We've registered for an online platform called SpeakPipe

Arlene:

where listeners can leave.

Arlene:

They're cussing and discussing entries for us, and we will play them on the show.

Arlene:

So check the show notes for the link.

Arlene:

You can leave us a voice memo there, or you can always send us

Arlene:

an email@barnardlanguagegmail.com and we will read it out for you.

Arlene:

Katie, what are you cussing and discussing this

Caite:

week?

Caite:

I feel like.

Caite:

One of the biggest stumbling blocks in my life with little kids at a farm and

Caite:

a job and living out in the country is the small errands that you cannot

Caite:

outsource or do online or whatever.

Arlene:

And you have to go to one very specific place

Caite:

to get done.

Caite:

Yes, I have to go get my oil changed.

Caite:

It's just it's not a big thing.

Caite:

It's not enough of a thing to put it in my calendar, but it takes an hour longer

Caite:

than the, even the actual oil change does because I have to drive to town and drive

Caite:

home and it's just little shit like that.

Caite:

Like it's not rewarding.

Caite:

It's not like you look at your car and you're like, it's not like

Caite:

getting your car detailed where it looks great after an oil change.

Caite:

Like it, it looks the same except that's it doesn't blow up, yeah.

Caite:

Like the little

Arlene:

sticker on the dash tells you that you've got a few

Arlene:

more miles to go, but that's it.

Caite:

Wow.

Caite:

How exciting.

Caite:

My car may not blow up from this reason in the next 3000 miles.

Caite:

Yeah, it's lame and I don't wanna do it.

Caite:

And I feel stupid that I don't wanna do it because it's just an oil change.

Caite:

Like it's just part of being an adult, but I don't want to.

Caite:

Yes.

Caite:

Yeah,

Arlene:

but it's one more thing.

Caite:

It's just one more thing.

Caite:

One more thing.

Caite:

Vanessa.

Caite:

What do you have to cuss and discuss today?

Vanessa:

I think just like having too many meetings, I'm like trying

Vanessa:

to be really protective of my time.

Vanessa:

I'm like, please do not schedule anything.

Vanessa:

Please.

Vanessa:

No.

Arlene:

So I know there's a little time slot there, but don't put anything in it.

Arlene:

It's fine.

Arlene:

Literally,

Vanessa:

I'm like, please get high, like 15 more minutes, eat lunch.

Vanessa:

So I think it just went really oh, please gimme a break everyone.

Vanessa:

What?

Vanessa:

My job is to meet with people, but what I try to do is not to take meetings Mondays

Vanessa:

and Fridays sotu Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and a social butterfly,

Vanessa:

and then on Fridays I can recharge.

Arlene:

That's good.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

And then give yourself some time to actually do some of the things that

Arlene:

you said you were going to do when you were in all those meetings too.

Caite:

Exactly.

Caite:

Is that the part I'm missing, Arlene?

Caite:

The doing the things, the leaving yourself time to do the things

Caite:

that you said you were going to do.

Caite:

Oh, yes.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

You need to slot

Caite:

that in.

Caite:

Yeah.

Caite:

I'll put that on my to-do list then.

Caite:

Yeah,

Arlene:

schedule yourself those.

Caite:

Yeah.

Caite:

Yeah.

Caite:

I do feel like leaving yourself Monday free is genius though, because it

Caite:

feels like a good start to the week to not start off already behind, and by

Caite:

free, without meetings, not actually,

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

Free.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

To do the, do some

Caite:

work.

Caite:

Yeah.

Caite:

So Arlene, what do you have to cuss and discuss today?

Arlene:

So mine is, I'm out of this stage where I know exactly what my kids

Arlene:

are doing at all times, which is fine.

Arlene:

They're getting older.

Arlene:

Mine range from eight to 17 now, Vanessa.

Arlene:

But now I'm at the stage where sometimes I don't actually know where they are.

Arlene:

And like last night, for example, I went to go and let my daughter know

Arlene:

that supper was ready and I'd forgotten that she was going out for supper

Arlene:

with a friend, which is fine, but it's just like I'm barely managing to keep

Arlene:

my own schedule straight in my head.

Arlene:

And now the people in my house, not that they need me to do anything

Arlene:

about it necessarily, but one of these days I'm gonna drop a ball

Arlene:

in terms of the people that need to actually be picked up or dropped off.

Arlene:

And yeah, there's too many additional schedules plus my own schedule

Arlene:

for me to keep straight anymore.

Arlene:

It appear.

Arlene:

It appears they have lives of their own, which is a real pain.

Arlene:

I don't know when that started.

Arlene:

So we wanna thank you so much, Vanessa, for joining us today.

Arlene:

If people want to connect with you online, learn more about what you're

Arlene:

doing, have a chat on a, not on a Monday or a Friday, where should they find you?

Vanessa:

The confinement on Twitter v g p visions they can follow me

Vanessa:

on Instagram to see my, my Congress adventures Vanessa Garcia Polanco and

Vanessa:

they can always follow what I'm doing with policy national Farmers Coalition.

Arlene:

That is Fanta.

Arlene:

Thank you so much.

Arlene:

It was great to talk to you today.

Arlene:

Yeah.

Arlene:

Thank

Vanessa:

you for the invitation.

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About the Podcast

Barnyard Language
Real talk about running farms and raising families.
Real talk about running farms and raising families. Whether your farm is a raised bed in your backyard or 10,000 acres and whether your family is in the planning stages or you've got 12 kids, we're glad you found us!

No sales, no religious conversion, no drama. Just honest talk from two mamas who know what it's like when everyone is telling you to just get all your meals delivered and do all your shopping online, but your internet is too slow and you've got cows to feed.

About your host

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Caithlin Palmer