1. Extension courses on business and farm management, followed by one-on-one counseling
2. Marketing workshops
3.  “Farm walks” that promote hands-on learning and information exchange among producers and university specialists.  Strategies covered include alternative pest management, soil and water management, and conservation.
4. A Hmong-language hotline; assistance accessing federal programs; sessions on completing loan applications; and support for farmer-led organizations.

For More Information Contact:

Cha, Bee — Hmong Program Coordinator
WSU King County Extension
919 SW Grady Way, Suite 120
Renton, WA 98055-2980
office: (206) 205-3154
cell: (206) 491-9004

Partners

Hmong Farmer Association of Washington
Fong Cha, Chairman
4711 328th Avenue N.E.
Carnation, WA 98014
Fong1347@yahoo.com
(425) 333-4393

Heifer Project Northwest
Cascade Harvest Coalition

Publications and Resources

Business Planning Curriculum
Whole Farm Plan Template
Whole Farm Planning Curriculum

Jenelle Landgraf
Refugee Resettlement Office
1610 S King St
Seattle WA 98144
jlandgraf@rroseattle.org
(206) 323-3152 Ext 104

 Pao Xiong                                                       
Hmong Farmers Co-Op
8623 206th St. SE
Snohomish, WA 98296
(360) 668-5226

Michael Skinner
Refugee Resettlement Office
Jump Start Fund
1610 S King St
Seattle WA 98144
mskinner@rroseattle.org
(206) 323-3152 ext 100

Andy Slipper
USDA Farm Service Agency
2021 W College Way Rm 201
Mt. Vernon WA 98273-2373
Andy.Slipper@wa.usda.gov
(360) 428-7758 ext.157                         

Joua Pao Yang
Indochinese Farmers Association
6404 232nd St SW
Mountlake Terrace WA 98043
mt.virgon@juno.com
(425) 672-9369

Bunly Yun
Cultivating Communities P-Patch Program
700 Third Ave Ste 400
Seattle WA 98104-1848
Bunly.Yun@Seattle.Gov
(206) 684-8495

Xiong Cha, President            
Eastside Hmong Association
P.O.Box 810
Carnation, WA 98014
(425) 350-5467

Chao, Yao Fou, Agriculture Educator
WSU- King County Extension
919 SW Grady Way, Suite 120
Renton, WA 98055-2980
Yao-fou.chao@metrokc.gov
(206) 205-3123

Bibliography of Hmong Resources

The majority of the information in this resource list was taken from “Immigrant and Refugee Farming Programs and Resources” by Marla Rhodes and Hugh Joseph, available at the link above as well as from the websites of the various organizations listed below.

Programs and Curriculum for Hmong Farmers From Around the Country

California FarmLink
Steve Schwartz, PO Box 2224, Sebastopol, CA 95473
707-829-1691, info@californiafarmlink.org
FarmLink is a non-profit organization working to promote family farming and conserve farmland in California where aspiring farmers can receive many services. They have partnered with several Hmong community organizations to offer to immigrant and refugee farmers the IDA - Individual Development Account.

Growing Power and Rainbow Cooperative
Will Allen, 414-527-1546, will@growingpower.org
Growing Power is the last remaining registered farm in the city of Milwaukee and is also a non-profit organization that teaches techniques in sustainable agriculture and provides hands-on training. Growing Power makes fresh local produce accessible to food-insecure communities. The Rainbow Farmer’s Cooperative was founded in 1994 under the umbrella of Growing Power and is a marketing co-op that allows farmers to sell their fresh produce and farm products at a fair and equitable price.

New Entry Sustainable Farming Program, Tufts University
Hugh Joeseph, 617-636-3788, hughjoseph@comcast.net
This non-profit program assists immigrants with agricultural experience to apply their skills in their new environment and become commercial farmers. Currently the project supports 50 farmers of Southeast Asian farmers through a year-round agricultural training program.

New Immigrant Agricultural Project/Organic Conversion Project
Minnesota Food Association
Chris Morton 612-788-4342 cbmcbm@aol.com
This is a training/mentoring program to support conventional and new immigrant farmers in converting from conventional or traditional farming methods to sustainable and organic production practices. The program includes a combination of educational workshops, establishment of training gardens for new immigrant participants, individual on-farm mentoring, development of a farmer network for information exchange between converting and experienced organic producers, and farm and experiment station field days.

New Immigrant Farm Program, University of Minnesota Extension
Vang Yang 651-423-2413, yangx182@umn.edu
This program provides training and assistance to help immigrants who currently rent or lease land in the Twin Cities area, increase their productivity. The program offers culturally appropriate materials in English, Hmong and Spanish on many topics including integrated pest management, post-harvest handling, and marketing and soil fertility management. In addition to offering an educational component, the NIFP helps new immigrants navigate the real estate buying process and will act as an intermediary between land sellers and real estate agents and buyers.

SE Asian Brown County Connecting For Success – Hmong Food Systems Project
Karen Early, 1150 Bellevue St, Green Bay WI 54302
920-391-4610, Karen.early@ces.uwex.edu
This program coordinates a community garden program that 200 gardeners take part in and of those, 80% are Hmong. In addition, a Hmong Farmers Coop has been formed with several family groups that are pursuing funding. There is also a continuing effort to connect local landowners and Hmong families without land with opportunities to rent, lease or purchase of land for start-up farming operations.

Small Farm Program, University of California, www.cefresno.usdavis.edu
Richard Molinar and Michael Yang,1720 S. Maple Ave, Fresno, CA 93702
559-456-7555, rhmolinar@ucdavis.edu
This program works with the diverse immigrant and refugee farming community in Fresno. Offerings include technical assistance, help finding land, farm planning classes, and training meetings presented in various languages. They have available a Training Resource Guide in Hmong and English and they also produce biweekly Hmong radio broadcasts.

Small Farm Resource Training Center, Hmong American Community
Chukou Thao 559-285-4930, ct_hac@yahoo.com
This center helps multi-ethnic farmers-in-training rent small portions of land at the market rate of $275 per acre per year to grow crops with intensive field guidance and classroom training. Any profit goes into the new farmers' pockets. The farmers enrolled in the program are also invited to a series of field and classroom training sessions the center over the course of the growing season. The coursework will cover such topics as pesticide safety, financing, crop selection, soil fertility, pest management, irrigation and marketing.

University of Massachusetts-Amherst Extension
Ruth Hazzard 413-545-3696, rhazzard@umext.umass.edu and
Frank Mangan 413-545-1178, fmangan@umext.umass.edu
This program works with new entry Latino, Cambodian, Hmong and Portuguese farmers and has produced a variety of fact sheets on pest management of vegetable insect pests, in various languages, among other resources.

Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources
Hmong Kou Xiong, 1300 W. Clairemont Ave, PO Box 4001, Eau Claire, WI 54702
715-839-1638, Xiong.kou@dnr.state.wi.us
Kou Xiong works on his own time with 150 Hmong families who garden up to five acres apiece, and sell at farmers markets. Future goals include supporting families who want to double their acreage, purchase some community equipment (such as a hand tiller), and to find new markets for excess produce.

Books on Hmong Culture, History, and Farming

Bliatout, Bruce Thowpaou, Bruce T. Downing, Judy Lewis, and Dao Yang. Handbook
for Teaching Hmong-speaking Students. Sacramento: Folsom Cordova Unified
School District, Southeast Asia Community Resource Center, 1988.
http://www.seacrc.org/media/pdfiles/HmongBk.pdf
This handbook was designed to assist school districts in providing bilingual education services and to assist school personnel in understanding minority language groups.

Brittan, Dolly. The Hmong–Celebrating the Peoples and Civilizations of Southeast Asia.
New York: PowerKids Press, 1997.
This is a 25-page book with many photographs that introduces the history, language, religion, and customs of the people that originated in China and now live in other areas of Southeast Asia as well. It was written for children, but is informative for adults as well.

Cao, Lan and Himilce Novas. Everything You Need to Know About Asian-American
History. New York: Plume/Penguin Books,1996.
In a lively question-and-answer format, this book provides a complete understanding of the traditions and ideas that people of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian, and Pacific Island descent have contributed to American life.

Cha, Dia. Dia’s Story Cloth–The Hmong People’s Journey of Freedom. Denver: Museum
of Natural History, 1996.
This is an autobiographical tale of the author’s family depicted through a hand-stitched story cloth. This colorful book is intended for 5th-9th graders.

Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. New York: Farrar, Straus
and Giroux, 1997.
This is the true account of a young Hmong girl in Merced, California whose illness takes her and her family into the world of western medicine. It is a tragic story of miscommunication and misunderstanding between people and cultures.
 
Koltyk, Jo Ann and Nancy Foner. New Pioneers in the Heartland: Hmong Life in
Wisconsin. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.
This book looks at how Hmong refugees assimilate by looking at how Hmong families are adjusting and adapting to their new lives in America. From a family-centered focus, the reader gains an appreciation for how the Hmong see their own adaptational process and how they represent and define their Hmongness in America. There is a chapter that describes the important role of gardening in the lives of Hmong immigrants and refugees.

Murphy, Nora. A Hmong Family. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Co., 1997.
This story depicts the history and culture of the Hmong and describes the experiences of one Hmong family as they move from Laos to Minnesota to rebuild their lives. It includes a Hmong folktale and many photographs. It was written for young people, but is also informative for adults.

The Hmong Youth Cultural Awareness Project of Minneapolis. A Free People: Our
Stories, Our Voices, Our Dreams. Minneapolis: The Hmong Youth Cultural Awareness Project of Minneapolis, 1994.
This is a collection of stories, writings and photographs by youth aged 14 to 18, which profiles Hmong students, elders, and parents around the Twin Cities.

Articles on Hmong Culture, History, and Farming

Allen, Margaret (Peg), Matthew, Susan, and Mary Jo Boland. (2004). “Working with
Immigrant and Refugee Populations: Issues and Hmong Case Study.” Library Trends 53(2): 301-328.
This article discusses the challenges related to providing health information for immigrants and refugees in the context of developing health education/health literacy programs. Topics include special needs of immigrant and refugee populations; health care for immigrants and refugees; identifying and working with partner organizations; examples of successful efforts; and finding funding sources for health information literacy projects.

Corlett, Jan L., Dean, Ellen A., and Louis E. Grivetti. (2003). “Hmong Gardens:
Botanical Diversity in an Urban Setting.” Economic Botany 57(3):365-379.
This article reports on the findings of a study which documented 59 Hmong garden species grown at a site in South Sacramento. Most of these species are documented as either food or medicinal plants. This article discusses the uses of the plants as well as the importance of urban gardens in maintaining Hmong cultural identity and practices.

Giang, Ho Ly (2000). “The Food Culture of the Hmong.” Vietnam Social Sciences 6(80):
96-110.
This article describes the food customs, food production, dishes and cooking methods, medicinal foods, food preservation methods, drinking and smoking habits as well as social behaviors and taboos associated with food practiced by Hmong residing in Hoa Binh province of Northwest Vietnam.
Hoan, Pham Quang (1995). “The Role of Traditional Social Institutions in Community
Management of Resources among the Hmong of Vietnam.” East-West Center Working Papers, Indochina Series 5.
This article provides an overview of Hmong land management practices in Vietnam.

Miyares, Ines M. (1997). “Changing Perceptions of Space and Place as Measures of
Hmong Acculturation.” Professional Geographer 49 (2): 214-224.
www.global.lao.net/laostudy/garden.htm
This article documents in-depth interviews and participant observation among 120 Hmong university students and their families in order to understand the spatial acculturation process of Hmong refugees in California's San Joaquin Valley.

Nguyen, Van Minh. (2000). “Agricultural Adaptation of the Hmong in Vietnam.”
Vietnam Social Sciences 6(80): 75-95.
This article assesses various aspects of the agricultural adaptation of the Hmong in Northwest Vietnam over the past several decades. The author discusses changes in crops grown, the impact of macroeconomic changes in Vietnam, changes in land classification, land use, and land rights among Hmong in this region, the role of swidden cultivation, and the relevance of social customs and the family division of labor in Hmong agriculture.

Tanaka, Shawn Toshiro (2001). Immigrant farmer's gold mine: The strawberry
(California). MA Thesis, California State University, Stanislaus.
This study compares the experiences of Hmong-American and earlier generations of Japanese-American strawberry growers in California's Central Valley through oral histories, interviews, and photographs. A comparison of the two groups suggests that strawberry cultivation is an entrance crop for immigrants with an agricultural background.

Websites with Agricultural Resources Relevant to Working with Hmong Farmers

University of Wisconsin-Extension Hmong Task Force
This website offers a multimedia approach to training Hmong farmers and small business owners with limited English-speaking ability. Voice-narrated Power Point slide shows are accessible online, and available on CD-Rom, on a range of topics including horticultural production, community gardening, farmers markets, and small business planning.

Working with Hmong Audiences
This website has good selection of resources, websites, books, articles, educational materials about Hmong culture and food, as well as ways to approach nutrition education when working with Hmong audiences. This information was gathered by Extension educators in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Hmong Studies
Comprehensive Hmong information, links to state and regional Hmong organizations, loads of research articles, bibliographies, census data. Click on Demographic Census Data tab for the exact numbers of Hmong per state in 2000.

Hmong Center
Hmong hunting and farming tools described on this particular page. This website provides lots of information about the Hmong immigrant community, history, language, and culture. It also includes an Educational Resources and Lesson Plans section which is particularly useful.  

Future Hmong Magazine
This monthly magazine and online “magazine website,” produced in Appleton, Wisconsin, is geared to the Wisconsin Hmong population and free to anyone living in the state. The website features articles about Hmong families in farming, and the magazine plans to distribute “How To Begin Farming” manuals in the near future, in collaboration with state agencies. 

Better Money Management: An Individual Development Account Economic Literacy Curriculum for Hmong People By Tou Xue Lor
Jeanette Williams, 920.426.0150, jennyw@advocap.org
This is a basic money management curriculum for 10 - 20 hours written in Hmong for a Hmong audience. The curriculum also focuses on saving and has been used successfully with Individual Development Account Program.

Websites with General Information About Hmong Language, Culture, and History

WWW Hmong Homepage
This website is an effort to bring together a collection the Internet-based resources related to Hmong news and current-events, issues, history, publications, and culture. It was created by Craig Rice and Robin Vue-Benson, graduate students at the University of Minnesota in the College of Education and Human Development's "International Development Education" program.

Hmong National Development
This is the website of Hmong National Development, Inc, a national non-profit organization developing capacity to ensure the full participation of the Hmong people in society. This organization works with local and national organizations, public and private entities, and individuals to promote educational opportunities, to increase community capacity, and to develop resources for the Hmong community. The website contains lists of organizations serving Hmong people in each state, including a list of links for small farmers.

Washington State Arts Commission, Asian Festivals
This site contains information about Hmong New Year traditions and other art traditions. It is hosted by the Washington State Arts Commission which was created to support the arts as a way of supporting the state's social, educational and economic growth, and to contribute to Washington's quality of life and the well being of its citizens.

Hmong Studies Resource Center
This website is the home of the Hmong Studies Journal, which has published 6 volumes and more than 40 scholarly articles since 1996. This website is also a source of comprehensive bibliographic information about studies of Hmong history, culture, and adaptation in diasporic communities around the world. The site also includes detailed Hmong, Lao, Cambodian, and Vietnamese census data from the U.S. Census.

Hmong Cultural and Resource Center of Minnesota
This site has lots of information on Hmong culture and history. It includes a comprehensive collection of Hmong-related literature, scholarly research, and multimedia materials. It is hosted by the Hmong Cultural and Resource Center of Minnesota, which seeks to promote the personal development of children, youth, and adults through Hmong cultural education while providing resources that enhance cross-cultural understanding between Hmong and Non-Hmong people.

The Hmong People in the U.S.
This webpage is dedicated to understanding the Hmong people in the United States, and the tragic events that brought them here. It was created by Jeff Lindsay of Appleton, Wisconsin.

Lao Family Community of Stockton
This website has a list of organizations that serve the Hmong community in California. It is hosted by the Lao Family Community of Stockton, which is dedicated to promoting economic development and self-sufficiency in the Southeast Asian Community.

 Hmong and Lao Related PHD Dissertations/MA Theses and Educational Materials