Star Tribune
Minnesota’s African immigrant farmers celebrate first year as a group
Last winter, they met at an organic conference in Wisconsin.
By spring, they’d formed a group, Minnesota African Immigrant Farmers Alliance (MAIFA).
On Sunday, they feasted and danced.
A whirlwind inaugural year for a group of 60-plus farmers dedicated to networking and advocating for African immigrant farmers in Minnesota culminated this weekend in a Maple Grove hotel ballroom, with vats of flat bread, kohlrabi, managu, roasted chicken, colorful attire and plenty of music.
“We are not the big fish with big lands,” said Jane Windsperger, a Kenyan immigrant who farms a small acreage near Ogilvie in the woods of central Minnesota. “We are starting, emerging farmers.”
Immigrants farming in Minnesota is a storied tradition. The Hmong American Farmers Association owns a spread of small farms on land west of Hwy. 52 in Dakota County. Latino farmers — sometimes after working for larger dairies or livestock processors — are increasingly seeking opportunities at landownership.
And, in keeping with centuries-old traditions in this region, Indigenous people continue to cultivate land and animals for food, particularly in recent years alongside the food sovereignty movement.
Earlier this year, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith held a roundtable for minority farmers at the Good Acre in Falcon Heights, highlighting the diversity of Minnesota’s agricultural scene.
But in the sea of voices, many in the African immigrant community felt their stories — and challenges — could be lost.
“The diversity of people who come from Africa in itself is a good thing,” said Vitalis Tita, who grew up farming in Cameroon and now lives in Buffalo, farming in both Montrose and Medina. “But it presents a unique challenge for us.”
About 1 in 5 Minnesotans is a person of color. But, according to the latest agricultural census conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 99% of the state’s farmers are white.
MAIFA formed in the spring. Today, the alliance boasts some 60 farmers — possibly more after Sunday’s feast. And they have many plans for the year ahead.
In farming, like many industries, associations lobby for resources. The ongoing negotiations over the federal farm bill reauthorization and recent state funding for new and emerging farming initiatives are just two examples of troves of potential dollars for cash-strapped producers.
Such funding is good, Tita said. But sometimes programs aren’t tailored for the smallest farmers. He described one grant for $100,000 that requires a $25,000 contribution from the grantee.
“That’s not for us,” Tita said. “The wheel has been spinning, but not for people like us.”
Agricultural subsidies promote exports or food price stability. But this only benefits farmers who are familiar with grant applications or can navigate government portals. New dollars can buy new equipment, such as high tunnels to grow vegetables, or be used toward a down payment for land.
Those farmers who attended Sunday’s feast are hungry for all of the above.
Windsperger, who just harvested her second crop on the Kanabec County farm, was able to secure a cooler to store her veggies earlier this year. She said not only farmers but also representatives from state government and the region’s global agribusinesses stopped by on Sunday.
“Even a family from Ogilvie came down,” said Windsperger, who described her new friends as surprised when she first began farming in 2021. “Now they are so impressed, [saying] ‘Hey, we can eat food from here.'”
Sunday’s festival — based on a traditional end-of-harvest celebration in Africa — was meant to be a signal to other African immigrants in Minnesota, encouraging them to pick up farming as they may have farmed in their birth country.
“It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. You’re coming from Cameroon. I’m coming from Kenya. Some are coming from South Africa,” Windsperger said. “Wherever you’re coming from, your voice needs to be heard.”
Northern State 35, Concordia (St. Paul) 34: Wyatt Block’s 2-yard TD run and the PAT with 10 seconds remaining lifted the Wolves past the host Golden Bears. Block’s touchdown capped an 11-play, 72-yard drive by the Wolves, who trailed 24-7 in the second quarter. Jeff Isotalo-McGuire’s 34-yard field goal with three minutes, 32 seconds remaining gave the Golden Bears a 34-28 lead.
Winona State 31, Bemidji State 28: Cade Stenstrom rushed for two TDs and passed for 150 yards and a TD to help the host Warriors outlast the Beavers. Stenstrom’s 1-yard TD run and the PAT with two minutes, 10 seconds remaining gave the Warriors a 31-21 lead. The Beavers responded with an 11-play, 93-yard drive to pull within 31-28 with 18 seconds remaining but the Warriors recovered the ensuing kickoff.
Div. I-AA
North Dakota State 59, Murray State 6: The top-ranked Bison built a 42-3 lead in the first half and went on to defeat the host Racers in Murray, Ken. CharMar Brown ran for 97 yards and three TDs for the Bison.
South Dakota State 20, South Dakota 17 (OT): Amar Johnson’s 3-yard TD run in overtime lifted the host Jackrabbits to the victory. The Coyotes opened the OT with a 40-yard field goal.
Youngstown State 41, North Dakota 40 (OT): The host Penguins went first in OT and scored and then stopped North Dakota’s two-point conversion to hold on for the victory. The Penguins sent the game into OT on a 35-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining.
Div. III
Augsburg 35, St. Olaf 34 (OT): The host Auggies stopped a two-point conversion in overtime to outlast the Oles. The Auggies went first in the overtime and scored on a 25-yard pass from Ryan Harvey to Tyrone Wilson. It was Harvey’s fifth TD pass — the fourth to Wilson. After the Auggies’ PAT, the Oles scored on a 25-yard TD pass from Theo Doran to Braden Menz. But the Oles’ pass attempt for the conversion failed.
After splitting their two-game West Coast trip to begin the season, the Wolves improved to 2-1 with a 112-101 win over Toronto in their home opener. It was a wire-to-wire win that featured some strong bursts of play from the Wolves and other times when their decision-making was suspect. But those moments when they were on, specifically the start of the game and most of the third quarter, were enough to carry them against a shorthanded Raptors team that was without RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown and Immanuel Quickley.
Julius Randle had 24 points while Anthony Edwards had 24 on 21 shot attempts. Donte DiVincenzo had 16 off the bench. Nickeil Alexander-Walker left the game in the fourth quarter and did not return, though he was in the bench area for the final minutes after going to the locker room briefly.
The Wolves’ starting lineup had its best stretch of basketball on the season after that unit started off sluggish in the first two games. Mike Conley, who was 3-for-16 to open the year, hit two early threes to set the tone, though Conley would finish 2-for-8.
Donte DiVincenzo replaced him at point guard halfway through the quarter and continued the hot shooting from the point guard slot with three threes of his own. The Wolves forced five Toronto turnovers and had a 32-18 lead after one.
Coach Chris Finch toyed with some different lineup combinations in the first half as he had Conley and DiVincenzo begin the quarter together while having Joe Ingles run the point later in the quarter. It led to an uneven second, and the Wolves led 56-44 at halftime.
But the Wolves played inspired coming out of the break. Jaden McDaniels, who didn’t take a shot in the first half, had nine points in the opening minutes of the third. Edwards hit a pair of threes as they pushed their lead to 22. The Wolves weren’t sharp closing the night, and the Raptors had the game within right inside of two minutes, but the Wolves had built enough of a cushion.
Rudy Gobert. Gobert had 15 points and 13 rebounds and was the beneficiary of some lobs from his teammates like Edwards, Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Joe Ingles. Gobert also finished with four blocks.
Gobert had two blocks on one possession in the fourth quarter that got the crowd off its feet and Gobert pounding his chest. Gobert blocked D.J. Carton and Jamison Battle.
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
