As reported in the U.S. Department of Agriculture-2007 Census, Hispanics claim the highest rate of new farmers in the nation.

Out of 66,671 farms and ranches there were a total of 82,462 Hispanics operators across the United States. The number of Hispanic operators grew 14 percent from 2002, significantly out pacing the 7 percent increase of U. S. farm operators overall.

A total of 55,570 U. S. farms had a principal operator of Spanish, Hispanic or Latino (*) origin in 2007. Up from 50,592 in 2002 an increase of 10 percent.

Texas, New Mexico and the Pacific Coast states saw the largest increases in Hispanic or Latino farm operators from 2002 to 2007. Overall, the percentage of Hispanics principal operators is highest in the Western United States with New Mexico (30.9 percent), California (11.3 percent), Texas (8.2 percent), Florida (6.7 percent) and Hawaii (5.9 percent).

Tirso Moreno, general coordinator for the Farm worker Association of Florida has also seen similar growth in the past decade. According to him "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. Many immigrant families, especially from Central America and Mexico, have strong farming roots, which likely has contributed to the increase in Hispanic & Latino population and the increase in Hispanic-owned farms".

What has happened in many places across the U.S., the predominately white farm owners/operators are reaching retirement age and selling their businesses. Their children have no interest in staying on the family farm. This has opened a great opportunity for Hispanic/Latino immigrants and farm hands.

As revealed by the 2007 Census "Hispanic or Latino principal farm operators themselves are predominantly male, however; the total of female farm operators of Hispanic or Latino origin grew 20 percent from 2002. Women now comprise 12 percent of Hispanic or Latino operators, up from 10 percent in 2002. The average Hispanic or Latino farmer has only been on his present farm for 4 years or less, which substantiates the recent shift from farm hand to farm owner. Out of 29 states the Hispanic or Latino operator/farmer comprises less than 1 percent and are more likely to want to own all the land that they operate. Keeping the smaller-owned farm financially afloat requires working at least some days in an off-farm job. In addition, pressures from corporate farms and the issue of farm subsidies and agriculture legislation to come are front and center for more and more Latinos. More than one-third of all Hispanic-operated farms or ranches is classified as beef cattle operations. Another 16 percent are classified as fruit and nut farms, compared to 4 percent of farms overall. And while 15 percent of farms overall are classified as grain and oilseed farms, only 3 percent of Hispanic-operated farms fall into this category."

Much of the same information is found in the article written by Eloisa Ruano Gonzalez published in the Orlando Sentinel, "Hispanics going from field hand to farm owner." "Most of the Hispanic farmers in Florida own small ferneries or nurseries or are growing fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes. The new Hispanic farm owner is most likely a child of Mexican immigrants. This is true of Benito Baca and Tony Ramos of Pierson, FL. They are now among a growing number of Hispanics in the U.S. who have gone from field hand to farm operator. Work has not been a stranger to these two. From age 5, they 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. It looks like all the hard work has paid off. Benito Baca started a business presumably in 2009 setting up irrigation systems at local nurseries and subdivisions. Tony Ramos has a small nursery started in 2005, where he sells hedges and shrubs to wholesalers and landscaping companies."

Financial funding is a major problem facing the new Hispanic or Latino owner. As revealed by Dr. Mickie Swisher, Director of the University of Florida’s Center for Organic Agriculture when she conducted a study for the USDA on small-scale Hispanic farmers and ranchers and their needs. The study focused on California, Florida, New Mexico, Texas and Puerto Rico, which have the highest number of Hispanic farmers. Swisher says "While the farmers were mostly second-generation Hispanics and spoke English, they were unaware of grants and other government resources available.

This was exactly the case for Benito Baca and Tony Ramos. Benito Baca raided his savings and maxed out his credit cards to launch his irrigation business. Tony Ramos got private bank loans to start his nursery business, on 2 acres owned by his father. His nursery has doubled to 4 acres. Ramos, who has a political-science degree from Stetson University in DeLand, Fla., had been working for a Bunnell, Fla., nursery when he saw an opportunity to start his own. Even while running his own, Ramos kept working at the Bunnell nursery, owned by a local family, until it closed last year."

Dr.Swisher’s areas of interest and expertise are in rural development in both the United States and internationally. Her experience includes six years working with farmers and their communities in North Central Florida and 15 years of experience with the Florida Cooperative Extension Service.

According to Swisher, "There are people out there like her friend Rudy Arredondo, president of the National Latino Farmers and Ranchers Association, who is working with grants and other government resources. His decade old organization, started after the nation’s number of Hispanic farmers jumped by 52 percent, is trying to change that. He helped write the 2008 Farm Bill, which added money for outreach and grant and loan programs for minority farmers. In November, the USDA awarded his association a grant for more than $300,000 to improve Hispanics’ access to federal programs and help them succeed."

Both Swisher and Arredondo both concur, the Federal government has not done a good job informing Hispanic about farm loans, crop insurance and other resources that help start, expand or keep their businesses afloat. There are many programs available like the Hispanic American Outreach Program run by the USDA Farm Service Agency to help farmers and ranchers with disaster recovery and loan opportunities. The Federal government offers grants and loans for minority and beginning farmers. For example, minority farmers can apply for up to $200,000 through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Small, Socially-Disadvantaged Producer Grant.

The USDA's Farm Service Agency also offers low-interest-rate loans to beginning farmers who cannot find financing from commercial lenders. Getting the word out to the Hispanic or Latino farmer seems to be a major problem. Even though they can now speak English, most do not have computers, many government forms are difficult for the average person to complete and the communicating with government employees as well as finding the time away from the day-to-day operations is almost impossible.

Swisher further indicates, "Hispanics are playing an important role in strengthening and diversifying the country’s farm sector. They are providing American consumers with alternatives to mega-supermarkets and fueling food cooperatives, community-supported farms and farmers’ market. It’s part of the American tradition, having many choices. They have 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. Studies have also proven water and soil conservation improves greatly when small family farmers work the land."

We sometimes conveniently forget there is a shortage of farm workers in the U. S. Hispanic or Latino farmers are helping to fill the gap even though out of 29 states they only represent 1 percent of the farm operators.

A recent article from the New York Times reveals, "Upstate farms are suffering because very few U.S. ― born citizens will accept agriculture jobs ― and the undocumented workers who have been staffing them for years are being hounded out by anti-immigration zeal. As a result, farmers are scaling back production of labor-intensive fruit and vegetable crops and investing heavily in labor-replacing machinery. Substituting human labor with machinery not only boost agriculture's fossil fuel use, it also makes farms more vulnerable by strapping them with debt. Not surprisingly, their lenders are getting nervous. As revealed before the U.S. House Agriculture Committee by an official from Farm Credit of Western New York, more than 800 farms in the state, representing 750,000 acres in farmland, were highly vulnerable to going out of business or forced to become part-time farms from a severe labor shortage. These operations, whose average size is less than 100 acres, essentially represent New York's base of mid-sized farms. The Farm Credit official predicted that if those farms fail, much of that land would likely remain in some form of agriculture, but that hundreds of thousands of acres would be vulnerable to being discontinued from crop production and converted to non-farm uses. In other words, what's left of New York's most productive farmland may soon be sprouting second homes and vacation condos where it once produced tomatoes and green beans."

As reported by Tom Philpott in his article regarding creating a sustainable food system he quotes information from the Associated Press, "Mexican farm workers are having trouble heading north over an increasingly well-patrolled border ― but U.S. farm owners are crossing the other way freely. Many U.S. growers have moved their fields to Mexico, where they can find qualified people, often with U.S. experience, who can't be deported. When they jump the border to buy land ― presumably without having to risk their lives in the desert or hire "coyotes" to ease the passage ― U.S. farm owners find an oasis of cheap and compliant labor. U.S. farm employers can buy a whole day's worth of labor for a wage ($9.60) equal to an hour's worth of work at the going rate north of the border ― while still doubling Mexico's minimum wage of $4.80 per day. We are talking mainly about large-scale agriculture here ― the kind that keeps your local Wal-Mart stocked with little bags of baby spinach and asparagus all year. In the logic of industrial farming ― where food is grown in vast, centralized mono crops, and then distributed in thousand mile-plus radii ― the shift from California to Mexico makes a certain sense. Mexico is closer to eastern U.S. markets than California, shipping times to Atlanta are a day shorter from Mexico's central Guanajuato State."

Philpott adds "The labor crunch is surely also squeezing California's mid sized operations ― the farms that will be needed to broaden local-food access in one of the nation's most economically stratified states. In farm fields larger than even a few acres, diversified vegetable farming is extremely labor intensive ― and in the modern U.S., farm labor generally means immigrant labor. What, then, is the answer? In the short term, the U.S. should end its ridiculous immigration policies. As I've written before, Mexican farm workers don't sneak across one of the globe's most militarized borders to freeload off of U.S. taxpayers, despite the fantasies of certain cable-TV commentators. Rather, they're fleeing a near-complete meltdown in small-scale Mexican agriculture ― one that directly implicates the free-trade zeal of U.S. policymakers and corporations. But even if U.S. policymakers did open the border ― highly unlikely ― we can't build a sustainable food system in the United States on the backs of former Mexican farmers who have been driven off their land by NAFTA and other binational U.S.-Mexico policies. The time has come for the U.S. sustainable-food movement to develop a North American consciousness ― to foster a farm worker movement of its own, and to seek coalitions with Mexican small-farm advocates to rebuild local and regional food networks on both sides of the border. "

While there are many people in the U. S. who recent the growth of the Hispanic or Latino farm owners, if they don’t try to support them, the big farm companies will continue to ship more of their operations to Mexico and other near by countries. This could possibly result in much higher cost for our food.

A study done in April 2009 by the Department of Labor reveals, out of a $49,638 family annual income, the average annual expenditure for food consumed at home is $3465, which is 7% and food away from home is to $2558, which is 5.4%.

Another study done by the USDA Agriculture on the "US Household Looking Ahead to 2020, Economic Research Service USDA Agriculture Report No.821" reveals "Total food expenditures Nation wide are projected to increase 26.3 percent between 2000 and 2020. Food away-from-home expenditures are projected to increase 27.5 percent. The largest projected increase in expenditures is for fruits, up 27.5 percent, while the smallest is for both beef and nonalcoholic beverages up 21.1 percent. Expenditures for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs are projected to increase 22.8 percent. Within this category beef spending will increase 21.1 percent while fish will increase 25.2 percent. The U. S. Census Bureau projects our population to increase by 50 million during this 20 year period, which is clearly the biggest boost to food demand in the future."

We should not blame the Hispanic or Latino farmer for this. No matter what origin, most only makes 20 cents out of each dollar. That is why keeping markets like the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market going is so vitally important. Among other things, they help to eliminate the middleman and keep the smaller to mid-sized farms afloat

Even Cardinal Roger Mahony, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles realizes the contribution the Hispanic or Latino farmer or immigrant contributes. "Immigrants ― both documented and undocumented ― are actually subsidizing our family food bills. These workers usually earn minimum wage, and work for staggered periods of time. That's why in this country we pay only 9.5% of our annual income for food ― the lowest percentage in the world. Other countries and their percentage of income spent for food: United Kingdom, 11%; Japan, 17%; South Africa, 27%; India, 53%. In reflecting back on my years in ministry as a priest and as a bishop, I have come to see that so much of that ministry brought me in touch with immigrant peoples, regardless of how they came to this country.

Cardinal Roger Mahony wrote, "While growing up in the San Fernando Valley I came in contact with those Mexican-American men and women who worked for my parents at their plant. They became my friends. During my years as a seminarian at Saint John’s Seminary in Camarillo, several of us seminarians were able to accompany priests to the farm labor camps where Mass was offered for the braceros, the temporary farm workers mostly from Mexico."

Cardinal Mahony feels we need to acknowledge the Hispanic, Latino or Mexican as our "neighbors, co-workers, students, and friends — and they contribute greatly to our nation and to our communities. Instead of being side tracked by heated rhetoric and political posturing, all of us should take the time to open our minds and hearts to hear the actual stories of the immigrants themselves. How do their experiences impact our local communities and our nation? Look into their faces. The more we come to know immigrants as individual people like ourselves with the same longings and yearnings for themselves, their families, and our countries, the more we will understand the need to reform federal immigration laws to help bring these people along a path to legal recognition.

We forget Joseph and Mary were immigrants in search of a safe place for Jesus who said, "Thy shall love thy neighbor as thyself."

It matters profoundly what one believes but also important is our delicate ecological system and creating a sustainable food supply for future demand. I for one am excited about the Hispanic, Latino or Mexican contribution in helping us create a balance between the two systems. Let us reach out to the new younger Hispanic or Latino farm hand and recognize it takes courage to become a farm owner. Give him or her deserving respect and welcome the expertise.

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(*) Hispanic or Latino has been used within statistical information in this article. To clarify preference between Hispanic or Latino, the following is provided: Historically, areas of the Americas conquered by the Spaniards were considered part of a region called Hispania. Countries that trace their history to Spain are considered Hispanic. Where Spanish is the primary language, these countries include: Mexico, Central America, and most of South America. The exception to this Hispanic designation is Brazil ― settled by Portugal not by Spain ― where Portuguese is the national language. People from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama and other areas south of the American border would be considered Hispanic.

There is one other major factor that gives ethnic identity: Spain conquered the Americas (the new world) and in doing so, devastated and plunder the ancient civilizations of the Aztecs, Toltecs, Mayans, Olmecs, and other people of Mesoamerica that developed the first great city/states of the Americas.

Consequently, it is not a matter of location of origin but rather how people self identify.

The Jon Garrido Network publishes Hispanic News, the number 1 ranked Hispanic site by Google, Yahoo and Bing, in addition the network publishes New Mexico News, Latino News and Latin America News. Lastly, The Jon Garrido Network is now developing three websites that will closely follow the Facebook concept: NosostrosUSA.com, HispSM.com and LatSM.com to provide persons multiple options to choose from.

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