Adele Wise: I’m Adele Wise and you’re listening to Agri[Culture], a podcast that explores how culture and traditions are preserved through land, labor, and farming in communities across Maine. Produced in partnership with Maine Farmland Trust, this podcast series is part of my senior project at College of the Atlantic. 

 

Building off of the first episode which covered preserving Wabanaki culture through farming, in this episode, we explore how the introduction of new cultures and communities have transformed Maine’s agricultural landscape. This episode focuses on New American farmers, individuals who were born outside of the U.S, and have come to live in Maine as refugees or immigrants. Those of whom I interviewed either run agricultural programs within their communities or just enjoy farming and growing food in Maine. Before I get into those interviews, I will begin by speaking with Rhiannon Hampson, who works for Chellie Pingree, the representative for Maine from the first district. She shared with me the history of farming in Maine during the 20th and 21st centuries and how it has changed over time. 

 

In the 1980s and 90s, small family farms were a large source of food for many families in some parts of Maine. However, over the years the small-scale subsistence focus has turned more into commercial focus.  One of the reasons for this is due to Maine having cheaper land prices as well as more land access. 

 

It was a snowy February morning when Rhiannon and I sat down over zoom to chat. She shared how it was almost every day she noticed new vegetable farms popping up in Maine. She had a few thoughts as to why. 

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Rhiannon Hampson: I think a lot if has to do with the robust network of support that different organizations have put together for farming here. So, MOFGA, of course, has existed since the 70s, but now we also have Maine Farmland Trust and we’ve always had a really robust cooperative extension. 

 

All that is to say, I feel like we’ve gone from a space where we actually had a lot of farms to kind of shrinking as we pass through that pipe a little bit and now we are kind of coming out on the other side where we’re growing a lot of farms again, but in just a very different way. The demographic has changed.

 

Adele Wise: One way in which the demographic has changed is through refugees and immigrants coming to settle in Maine. Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Iraq are a few countries that are currently sending refugees to the U.S. Some subsets of these groups happened to be farmers in their home country, and therefore have decided to continue this path of farming in Maine. 

 

Rhiannon Hampson: I love the fact that the new Maine community is taking the agricultural experience that they have for millennia in their countries of origin and bringing that here. It’s not even necessarily because I like particular foods that are being grown, but I just think culturally relevant food is really important. I think that in order to have immigration from some of these countries and have it be successful we have to provide people with food that feels good to them. I think that they are doing a really important service for their community by providing culturally relevant food which then helps our whole community by making people more comfortable being here because again we need immigrants. Aging population, million and a half people. 

 

Adele Wise: As the state with the oldest population with an average age of 45, Maine is in need of younger populations to participate in the workforce. Not only is immigration one way to ensure a stable workforce and increase the health of communities overall, it is also essential in creating and celebrating greater cultural diversity. Rhiannon commented on how this shift has impacted her personally. 

 

Rhiannon Hampson: It feels like this balance that's constantly shifting but it has to be something that we’re aware of all the time in order to get out of this being the people that we want to be in this space. Honoring the history that’s not ours and then trying to figure out how to bring in and weave in the history that is ours, because everybody just inherently brings that with them. And then, also trying to figure out how to make space for new people to bring their history that’s also not ours without feeling nervous about that, without feeling threatened by that, without feeling uncomfortable. That’s a hard one to keep in check. 

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Adele Wise: I decided to reach out to some new Americans farming in Maine. Liberation Farms run by the Somali Bantu Community Association also known as SBCA was where I started. 

Here is the director Muhudin Libah 

  

Muhudin Libah: My journey to Maine was been from Africa, Kenyan refugee camps to upstate New York and then to Maine. My reason of coming to Maine was to help set up this nonprofit organization for the community in Maine. I ended up loving Maine and that’s why I’m here.

 

Adele Wise: Somali Bantu people were brought to Somalia in the 19th century by slave traders, worked as agricultural laborers and endured centuries of oppression. As the ethnic minority during Somalia’s civil war, many Bantus faced violence and were forced to evacuate to refugee camps in Kenya. 

In 1999, the US government began resettling Somali Bantu refugees around the country. In the early 2000s, Somali Bantu folks began to arrive in Lewiston. Today there are approximately 3,000 Somali Bantu people living in the community, many of whom have a strong farming background.  

 

Muhudin Libah: We started the program to help the community transitionally, and as we were doing that, people started trying to figure out how they could farm in Maine. We found a piece of land in 2014 and initiated a program with twenty farmers. The next year was double and then the third year was triple. Now we have about 220 farmers 

Farming is something that is uniting all Somali Bantu, it doesn’t matter your affiliation, it’s a food source. We are producing food for people who can’t produce for themselves.

 

We tried to bring that over here because that is a tradition and something that we inherited from our parents. It’s our culture so we need to continue that culture from our ancestors.  

 

Adele Wise: I also had the opportunity to speak with Catherine Padgett, who is currently the Farm and Markets Coordinator with the Somali Bantu Community Association.

 

Catherine Padgett: I was really drawn to SBCA because they are advised by a board of directors, a farming committee and a full staff, all of whom are Somali Bantu, so that community-led approach felt really important as a white person who wanted to learn more about what food justice meant. I think I didn’t feel comfortable taking up space in an organization that wasn’t prioritizing the voices of the people who were benefiting from the programming. 

 

Adele Wise: Somali Bantu Community Association provides new American farmers access to culturally appropriate resources for sustainable food production for their families and their community. Having culturally appropriate resources and food means having access to the materials and ingredients that are important and familiar to one’s culture so that they are able to continue their traditions to the best of their ability. 

 

Catherine Padgett: Bantu people have been growing most of the food consumed in and exported from Somalia so many in our community are able to meaningly provide for their families and their community by capitalizing on generations of this farming expertise. And thus Liberation Farms was born. 

 

Adele Wise: The farm’s mission statement is “food justice in action.” Things haven’t always been smooth sailing since the  arrival of Bantu people in the early 2000s and the association’ s first purchase of land in 2014

 

Catherine Padgett: So although Maine is now home, many in our community are still confronted with intense institutional racism and religious discrimination as Muslim and black people which further marginalizes the community from accessing resources to address food security and of course its root cause being poverty. 

 

Adele Wise: Many Bantu struggle to find work in Maine due to their limited English language and literacy skills. In addition, food insecurity rates for black Mainers who are first or second-generation immigrants is 51.6% In this context, food security is the availability of food and of people’s ability to access it. People who are food insecure struggle with consistent access to food or limited resources. 

Over the past 15 years, there has been a small economic boom within Lewiston and both food and economic insecurity has decreased with the presence of the Somali Bantu community 

 

Catherine Padgett: Because Somali Bantu folks are such hard workers, they know how to provide for their families and are incredible business people. There are still episodes of racism and cultural bias, but I think that as every year passes, white folks and American born folks in Lewiston and Auburn are seeing the hard work of our community and taking note and spreading the word that this is an incredibly wonderful shift in Central Maine.

 

Adele Wise: The work that Somali Bantu Community Association has done has been impactful for both the Somali Bantu community themselves as well as the Maine communities that they have settled into.

SBCA is not the only community currently farming in Maine. I was also able to speak to two farmers from South Sudan.

 

 Refugees from Sudan began migrating to Maine in the 90’s fleeing the religious and political persecution brought on by the civil war in Sudan. The country eventually split into two separate nations in 2011, now recognized as South Sudan and Sudan.

 

John Yanga: My name is John Yanga. I was born in 1960 back in South Sudan. I used to farm as to make extra food, so that was why I grow up as a farmer since my childhood. 

 

Adele Wise: This is John Yanga, a Sudanese man living in Portland. I was put in contact with him through a mutual friend, Lado Ladoka, who also grows food.  Both of these men joined me on a joint zoom call on a Wednesday morning. 

 

Upon arriving to Maine, John was equipped with two bachelor’s degrees, but could only find work housekeeping. Through his mother, he was eventually introduced to NASAP, the New American Sustainable Agriculture Project which was run by Cultivating Community. Cultivating Community is a nonprofit organization that empowers New Americans by teaching them sustainable farming practices and connecting them to the communities where they live

 

John Yanga: I was giving my mom and other elderly ladies in my community a ride to the farm. Then eventually I was interpreting for them and then the project asked me to join them so I can be of help. I started to work with them for two years, we were able to go to different states for learning, for training, Then I was really benefiting from the trainings. The elderly ladies were saying that it was just waste of time for them, they just wanted to grow food, they didn’t care about too many trips and training and this stuff. So because I have that background and I learn a lot I thought I should really make use of this to do it myself. 

 

Adele Wise: Today, John works at Fresh Starts Farm, which is a collective group of farmers working with Cultivating Community and sharing a market space at the Deering Oaks farmers market every Saturday in Portland. 

 

John Yanga: We are trying everything here in Maine. We have our own skills that we came with in Africa, but here we have to learn how to start over. Because of the environment, different types of vegetables. Some of those that we grow back home can work here but we need a lot of other skills to do it. Here I can try everything. Everything that can work I try. If it doesn’t work then I don’t do it anymore.  

 

Well I learned to do potatoes really well. I try to grow as many varieties as possible, so when I bring them to the market, people love it. They say oh my goodness this guy have all these potatoes, different ways, the fingerlings, the big potatoes. I spend like almost $1,000 worth of potato seeds. I don’t really make a lot of money but I just love to be fancy at the market. 

 

Adele Wise: In addition to his interest in potatoes, John introduced me to a few crops that was often grown in equatorial climates like Sudan, including Molokhia, a leafy green similar to kale, Okra: green seed pod,  and Black Eyed Peas, which are grown for the leaves as opposed to the peas.  

Lado Ladoka, also born in South Sudan, and settling in Maine during the 90’s, shared his love for Black Eyed peas

 

Lado Ladoka: My favorite is Black-Eyed Pea leaves, because yes, Americans have black-eyed peas but they don’t eat the leaves and so you don’t find the leaves on the market. So when I grow the black-eyed peas, I don’t care about the peas. I can go to Walmart and purchase them for a dirt nothing, But the leaves are not anywhere that you can find them. So I grow them so I can harvest the leaf and consume it but also give it to the community. Any person who wanted them.

 

Adele Wise: Lado’s background in farming began back in South Sudan. 

 

Lado Ladoka: My dad has a huge farm and so although I didn’t stay there for a long time, but I have seen the techniques of how the work is done. But mostly the interest here in Portland is based on the fact that some of the food we enjoy eating, you cannot find them in the market, and so you have to grow your own to be able to enjoy it. So that’s what interests me. 

 

Adele Wise: John chimed in on what makes growing food special 

 

John Yanga: Also even, whatever you can find in the market, if you can grow them yourself, it tastes different for some reason. The potatoes I grow myself, they taste different. 

 

Adele Wise: Like John’s potatoes, this again demonstrates the idea that farming doesn’t always revolve around profits, but instead a love for the food you are growing and its significance in your life, whether that's cultural or not. 

 

Lado Ladoka: I’m not sure if there’s a market for what I enjoy, and so I would give it to my friends for them to taste it to see if they like it or they don’t like it but it is not something that people are used to eating because I could not go to any store and buy what I wanted to eat, so I had to grow my own. 

 

Adele Wise: Despite there not being an immense demand by American-born communities for the products Lado is producing, there is still great importance in what he is doing. Black-eyed peas are a great example of a culturally significant foods. They are typically grown in the equatorial region of Africa. Their leaves are used by people living in South Sudan, parts of Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and several other countries. The availability of this product in Maine allows communities to eat foods that are part of their culture, helps them to feel comfortable in their new homes, and is actually linked to improved health. 

I asked Lado if he experienced any specific challenges since starting his garden.

 

Lado Ladoka: The challenging is the fact that I have animals that will come and eat my vegetables. 

John Yanga: Share your food man, share with them. Share with the animals too! 

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Adele Wise: Although most farmers can relate to Lado’s frustration with animals eating his vegetables, John’s joke about sharing with the animals made me think of a deeper message of respectfully sharing the land, the food and the labor that comes with farming and is essential in welcoming cultures and maintaining a sustainable, thriving community. 

 

In the future, Lado shared that he will continue to work on his garden as the weather warms up, growing food for himself and his friends. John, however, has some ambitious plans to start a project inspired by his mother who recently passed, to grow and sell vegetables for the Portland community. He hopes that the profit made on this project will be sent back home to South Sudan for his family and to start a farming project there as well. With the potential for an aspect of farming education, John’s project adds to Maine’s increasingly diverse landscape of providing culturally appropriate food as well as fresh local produce to communities for generations to come. 

 

Special thanks to those whom I interviewed in this project for entrusting me to share their stories. 

 

For more information please check out my blog in the description for resources about the organizations mentioned in this interview. 

 

Thank you to my project advisors Kourtney Collum and Galen Koch for editing countless drafts, 

To the Oshima Brothers for the music you heard 

And to College of the Atlantic and Maine Farmland Trust. 

 

Thank you so much for listening.