Your Support for the Small Farm Connection Helps Build Rural Communities
November, 2001
The Small Farm Connection is now entering its eight month, and for those of you who started in the first round, you are now opening box No. 8, the second selection from African American farmer and craft cooperatives in Mississippi. We at SuperMarketCoop want to take a moment to thank you for joining us on the ground floor of this endeavor!
As you enjoy the recipes, the stories, the crafts, and the
delicious food items enclosed, here is a brief look
"behind the scenes" of the Small Farm Connection.
Our members of course contend that you won't find better
tasting sweet potatoes anywhere; personally ordered, selected
and checked for quality and taste by Ben Burkett of the
Mississippi Association of Cooperatives. As you choose
among the many recipes for your succulent, Southern MAC
sweet potatoes, brew a soothing cup of lemongrass tea while
nibbling praline candy and orchard fresh pecans. You will
find a variety of unique, traditional, and diverse recipe
ideas using the items in your
"Thanksgiving Memories" box, which also
includes a hand-made textile craft item, created and
produced by the women of the Mileston Cooperative
Women's Club - a rich legacy of Southern African
American seamstresses and quilters. You are tasting and
supporting a boxful of down home cooperation that benefits
rural people and their communities!
When you join or give gift memberships to Small Farm
Connection, your membership flows back to many communities,
this time the members of the Mississippi Association of
Cooperatives (MAC), a member of the Federation of
Southern Cooperatives. Currently, MAC has 11 cooperative
members including both farming and housing cooperatives,
as well as credit unions. MAC also advocates for fair
policies, raises capital, and allocates funds in the form
of direct loans. Their most prominent concern, however,
is to be responsive to their farmers' needs. When farmers
articulated the need for processing facilities, MAC got
to work - raising to-date, over $5 million for four
value-added processing plants.
Taste of the Sweet Potato Growers Association, Mound Bayou, MS
In 1938, Louis Sander's father acquired forty acres of land through President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal program, allowing his family to move off of a plantation to their own farm in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, where he and his eight siblings were raised. He left the farm for college. After graduating, he took a job with IBM working with military contracts for the ongoing Vietnam War and later transferred to a computer company in Nebraska. When his father died in 1972, Sanders searched for work back home. However, while companies appeared interested in Louis' resume, when he interviewed in person he was told that the advertised job position was filled, though a job with significantly less pay was available. Frustrated with this racist process, Sanders returned to farming with his brother to bide his time until he found a fair job offer. His temporary farm life grew from one month to one year to decades. "I guess I just never stopped farming," Sanders explains.
The farmers of the Mound Bayou area focused on two major
cash crops - cotton and soybeans. In the 1960's, the problem
of malnutrition and hunger in the Mississippi Delta let to
programs to encourage farmers to grow fresh produce for the
community. To better market these new products, farmers
formed the Mound Bayou Farmer's Cooperative. Sanders' became
deeply involved and his experience led him into a second
cooperative in the 90's, a time when farmers were exploring
alternatives to cash crops due to the instability of the
market. During this time, Wardell Sanders (no relation),
who had been trucking vegetables for 30 years, returned
home to Mound Bayou with a desire to grow sweet potatoes.
"He said the sweet potatoes grown here had a better
taste than potatoes grown anywhere else," remembered
Louis. With help from Alcorn State University, Wardell
convinced several farmers, including Sanders, to grow a
test crop of sweet potatoes.
Sanders acknowledges, "Before I started growing sweet potatoes, I wasn't a big fan. It wasn't anything special to me...I'll be honest with you. When my wife finally baked me one of our sweet potatoes, it was so good, I ate the hull. Then I said, 'I'm gonna grow some of these.'" Mr. Sanders expanded his production, as did many other farmers who had tested the crop. In 1995, they formed the Sweet Potato Grower's Association and joined the Mississippi State Association of Cooperatives.
The farmers have had mixed success. Three out of the past five years have been droughts. Prospects look strong this year, however, and the cooperative currently has a relationship with a distributor for Midwestern supermarkets, and he hopes the market will grow. Still he sees obstacles for farmers, specifically African-American farmers, in accessing land and resources. What scares him the most, however, is the dwindling labor supply. "Land has gone out of favor with the majority of our people. Farming is not viewed as a viable profession." So what keeps this man farming? "I guess it could be in my blood. The first commandment God gave man is, 'Here is the earth. Subdue it.' ... It's a tricky balance. You don't want to overdue it, but you want to let the land serve you. It's like mining a diamond." Lest Mr. Sanders appear too serious, he offers one more reason for his continued agricultural efforts - "good home cooking!"
Our craft selection is from the Mileston Farmers
Cooperative Women's Club. The women work together
to create quilts, aprons, napkins, and other crafts.
You can order from
SuperMarketCoop.com.
Women's Club co-founder Ms. Davis states,"Hopefully we can be successful because we're not gonna give up... we meet and we share ideas and we don't have one person trying to do everything. It's a community effort where we try to work together."