Comments on: A Return to Native Agriculture https://civileats.com/2022/01/21/a-return-to-native-agriculture/ Daily News and Commentary About the American Food System Sat, 05 Feb 2022 17:27:27 +0000 hourly 1 By: MV Paul Worland https://civileats.com/2022/01/21/a-return-to-native-agriculture/#comment-255186 Sat, 05 Feb 2022 17:27:27 +0000 https://civileats.com/?p=45332#comment-255186 Great Enlightening Inspiring Journalism Fueling Global Growth, Perfect Health, Prosperity, World Peace!

Thank You For All You Do!

]]> By: Lon Inaba https://civileats.com/2022/01/21/a-return-to-native-agriculture/#comment-251726 Tue, 25 Jan 2022 23:31:18 +0000 https://civileats.com/?p=45332#comment-251726 Hi Anna,
I enjoyed your story . I have just sold our 100 year old, third generation family farming operation to the Yakama Tribal Nation. They are rich in land and water resources but have little experience in farming. We are an established grower, packer, and shipper of organic and conventionally grown produce with distribution throughout the Pacific Northwest. Our family leadership team is all aging, but we intend to stay to help make that transition a success.

My grandfather came to the Yakama Reservation with and education in agriculture from Japan in 1907. Despite numerous anti-Japanese efforts by the US government against the Japanese pioneers, who cleared the Reservation lands of sagebrush and help to dig the irrigation delivery systems, the Japanese persevered with the help of the many Native American landlords and friends. We are working toward repaying their generosity and friendship.

Today we are transitioning the farm to help to educate, feed, and empower the Native populations in addition to supplying the major grocery chains, food service providers, and hunger programs in the Pacific Northwest and Canada from our 1000 acres of conventional lands and 500 acres of organic land producing fresh market vegetables. Our crops are focussed on the three sisters of corn, beans, and squash. Our methods include composting, cover cropping, crop rotation, minimum tillage, and drip irrigation . Our facilities include greenhouses, cold rooms, packing lines, hydro coolers, flake ice machines, and seasonal farmworker housing.

We seek to capture the indigenous tribal knowledge of their elders of sustainability and food preservation before that knowledge is gone.

We are reaching out to secure grants to fund our training, feeding, and empowerment programs. Any suggestions that you may have for available grants or funding sources would be appreciated.

Our farm does not carry a lot of debt but we cannot rely on the conventional farming operations to fund the training and feeding programs without jeopardizing the rest of the farm. We are reaching out for outside funding. I believe that we are building a program that can be replicated throughout other regions in Indian country to educate, feed, and empower. Our goal is to be able to ultimately offer certified organic produce into our feeding programs and develop a mechanism to fund the feeding programs after the covid funding disappears . If we can do it with tribal people from tribal lands the whole community can benefit. We are seeking to reach out to other tribes in the region to expand those empowerment and feeding programs.

Thank for your efforts to promote food sovereignty in indigenous cultures. I look forward to working with you in that effort.

Lon Inaba
General Manager
Yakama Nation Farms

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