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Hispanics going from field hand to farm owner
Orlando Sentinel – February 7, 2011
PIERSON — Benito Baca and Tony Ramos worked in Pierson’s ferneries since they were 5. Children of Mexican immigrants, the boys worked after school, cutting foliage used in flower bouquets.
If one fell behind cutting leaves, the other pitched in so they could make baseball practice, said Baca, who still recalls working in cold, damp clothes after Florida’s heavy rains. During summers, he says, the black shades that protect ferns from the sun intensified the humidity underneath.
“It was so humid, you immediately started to sweat. It was so hard to breathe,” Baca, 31, said.
These days, the men’s sweat is plowed into their own agricultural businesses. Baca and Ramos are among a growing number of Hispanics in the U.S. who have gone from field hand to farm operator. Baca started a business more than a year ago setting up irrigation systems at local nurseries and new subdivisions.
In 2005, Ramos, 31, started a small nursery in Pierson, where he sells hedges and shrubs to landscaping companies and wholesalers.
“There are a lot more [Hispanic owners] out there than people realize,” said Ramos, who last fall unsuccessfully ran for Pierson Town Council — historically populated by white fernery owners.
Faces of farming have changed
Hispanics claim the highest rate of new farmers in the nation, followed by Asians, said Tirso Moreno, general coordinator for the Farmworker Association of Florida. Florida also has seen similar growth in the past decade, he said.
Florida has more than 3,100 farms and agriculture-related business where Hispanics are the principal operators, making up almost 7 percent of the 47,500 total, according to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, the most current report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Moreno said many of the farmers with whom he works come from Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Putnam and Volusia counties. Most own small ferneries or nurseries or are growing fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes.
Central Florida is home to 150 Hispanic-operated farms and agriculture-related businesses. The region, composed of Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties, is home to 4,400 white-operated farms. More than a hundred farms in the region list an Asian principal operator.
The number of Hispanic farms likely increased because of an increase in the Hispanic population, said Sterling Ivey, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture. Hispanics make up about 21 percent of the state’s population, compared with 15 percent a decade ago.
Many immigrant families, especially from Central America and Mexico, have strong farming roots, which likely has contributed to the increase in Hispanic-owned farms, Moreno said.
Meanwhile, the number of Florida’s white farmers who traditionally controlled the agriculture industry declined by 10 percent from 2002 to 2007 — many retiring or selling their businesses to large corporations. Their children no longer want to carry on the family business and instead are moving to urban areas to attend college and get higher-paying jobs.
“That’s opened an opportunity for Hispanic immigrants,” Moreno said.
Hispanics are playing an important role in strengthening and diversifying the country’s farm sector, said Mickie Swisher, an associate professor in the Sustainable Agriculture Department at the University of Florida. Hispanic farmers are providing American consumers with alternatives to mega-supermarkets and fueling food cooperatives, community-supported farms and farmers markets, Swisher said.
“It’s part of the American tradition, having many choices,” she said.
Chili peppers, red turnips and greens
Minority farmers have even introduced new fruits and vegetables to the U.S. market. For example, Hispanic and Caribbean farmers provide red turnips and different varieties of chili peppers and greens, Swisher said.
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