First Hmong-owned certified organic farm in Minnesota embraces entrepreneurship

NINA MOINI: It's Minnesota Now. I'm Nina Moini in for Cathy Wurzer. Thank you so much for being here with us. The desire to own a business runs strong throughout American history. "Entrepreneur. Americans have fallen in love with this French noun," write two historians in their book about entrepreneurship. Much of the dynamism in our neighborhoods and communities comes from entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Among them is Mhonpaj Lee Vang and family. She and her mother Mhonpaj Garden, the first Hmong-owned certified organic farm in Minnesota with 5 acres in Stillwater and 4 acres in Marine on St. Croix. She also owns 22 farming acres in Hugo. Mhonpaj is a licensed real estate broker, real estate developer, and more recently, program host on Hmong TV. MPR's senior economics contributor Chris Farrell caught up with Mhonpaj in White Bear Lake. And he joins us now. Hi, Chris.

CHRIS FARRELL: Good to be here.

NINA MOINI: So, Chris, obviously she is busy. Hmong refugees started leaving Laos in Thailand for Minnesota, of course, in the 1970s as political refugees following the Vietnam war.

CHRIS FARRELL: And her father, who passed away two years ago, he fought alongside the US during the Vietnam War. And he, his wife, and two of their children had to leave quickly after the war for safety. So she recalls talking to her father about that difficult time.

MHONPAJ LEE VANG: And he's like, we had to flee at night, you know. And then if some people drowned in the Mekong River, if they didn't know how to swim-- and they didn't have floats back then, so they would take a pig belly and they would blow into the stomach. And then they would use it as a floatie to kind of like-- of course, my sister, [? Manila ?] and [? Zong, ?] were still babies. So it was really hard to carry the two babies across.

NINA MOINI: And I mentioned she works with her mother. Many Hmong families in Minnesota used their traditional farming skills to feed their families and earn some money when they arrived, right?

CHRIS FARRELL: That's right. And among the farming jobs they took on, the family worked on fields of cucumbers, which, of course, are then used for pickles. And she remembers what it was like to be in the field when she was young.

MHONPAJ LEE VANG: So we were the people who would go pick all the cucumber stuff and then we would plant. We would pick. And the rows would be so long, I remember waking up remembering seeing pickles-- like, small pickling cucumbers in my dreams. And we would pick them. And so we ended up doing that for a while. And then we just grew a little bit on the side because they would let us rent land to do some of the Hmong herbs.

My parents were such entrepreneurs, they would even-- they were making us cook, too. They taught us how to cook Hmong food, and we would sell them at the flea market.

NINA MOINI: Chris, that's a lot of hard work for probably not that much money.

CHRIS FARRELL: Not that much money at all. And they rented the land. And over time, they sold produce and farmers markets, Community-Supported Agriculture, which we call CSAs, and other outlets. And I mean, the kids worked really hard. They worked before school, after school. There were no family vacations. But here's the thing. The kids went to college.

MHONPAJ LEE VANG: All of us went to college. And he wanted us to become lawyers and doctors. And he didn't want us to become farmers. He was like, farming is hard work and only for people like us who don't know how to speak English and be farmers. This is hard work.

And you don't make a lot of money. Because I remember we were at the Minneapolis Farmers Market. We made like $20 the whole day. And then we bought ramen noodle at the little port that they had food for lunch. And I was like, dad, we didn't make anything. And then I said, we were here the whole day. And he's like, oh, it's OK. Well, better luck next time, right?

And I was just like-- he's like, yeah, you don't make money in farming. And you just have enough to eat. But if you guys become smarter, then you wouldn't have to live our life, and you'd get-- you can accomplish anything. So he had so much belief in us.

NINA MOINI: Her dad was right. Farming isn't an easy way to make a living. Yet, she eventually decided to embrace farming.

CHRIS FARRELL: Right. And if you go to the Mill City Farmers Market-- you've probably been there, I know. I know I've been there. So you may have met her or her mother or some other family member. And they were at the St. Paul's Farmers Market, but then that just got to be too, too much.

So, yeah, this return to farming was one of the questions I really had-- you know, why did you do this? And there were a variety of reasons, but one of them that she emphasized, while she was in college, she got a lot-- like a lot of college students, you get involved in various causes. She thought a lot about policy, a typical college experience. And the seminal moment came on a trip to El Salvador, and she met this local sustainable advocate and farmer. And he focused on giving back to the community. And his example inspired her. Now, it's still a lot of work. For example, she told me about her mother calling her, wondering where she was.

MHONPAJ LEE VANG: And she calls. And she's like, what are you doing? I'm like, well, I'm selling real estate, mom. And she's like, well, you need to be picking the cabbages now. So we just ended up picking 14 boxes-- so that's 450 pounds of cabbages-- before today. So between being a broker in the morning and showing houses, I have three different outfits in my trunk. I have to transition from-- I went to work out in the morning for an hour. And then I had to change out of the workout clothes, go into the farm clothes, and then go into the real estate clothes, and then go back to the farm clothes.

[LAUGHTER]

NINA MOINI: I thought you and I were working hard, Chris.

CHRIS FARRELL: And I do have to add, they have five children, and the five children are active in sports. And her husband is a financial advisor. And one reason he embraced that career was so that they could learn how to save for their retirement.

NINA MOINI: And does she enjoy being a real estate agent?

CHRIS FARRELL: She really does. Her brokerage is called Inspire Access Realty. And really, a big part of the business is she specializes in working with farm service agency loans for people who are looking to do some farming. And her real estate even got her into the development business.

MHONPAJ LEE VANG: I got a family on the east side. They're a family of 13. And they thought they couldn't own a brand new construction. And they all slept in a three-bedroom house. And I said, oh, you know, your house is actually worth $300,000, and you have equity in it.

And I built them-- my first house that I built was five bedroom, three bath, three-car garage. And they were so happy. And we built it for 350. That was like five, six years ago, $350,000 for a house that big. And they were so happy.

NINA MOINI: Mm. You know, this is a good example of how one small business idea leads to another and then a related business. And I've run across this from conversations over the years with entrepreneurs. Sometimes, they just see a problem and they want to solve it. And earlier, she said her parents were very entrepreneurial. And she's really following their example.

CHRIS FARRELL: She really is. And we were talking about just along these lines, and I thought this was a really nice moment about lessons learned from her parents.

MHONPAJ LEE VANG: My dad would get so angry at me when I was never on time. He's like, you have to be on time because the plants are going to die if you don't come water it. And that taught me on time. When you think about it, farming has taught, if you don't care for that plant, it's going to die if you don't water it, if you give it too much water, if you don't give it enough. It taught me common sense. It taught me that when you want to give up, you don't give up.

NINA MOINI: That's good advice. So I understand that many Hmong families often live together in multigenerational households. Combining resources is financially sensible. And of course, the emotional and cultural bonds from being together run very deep.

CHRIS FARRELL: Yes. So when she and her husband were newlyweds, they took care of three boys and a girl from her husband's side of the family. Her father-in-law had passed away early. So strong family ties really matter to her.

MHONPAJ LEE VANG: I also want to teach my kids that you have to respect your older generation, too, and that grandma took care of you when you were a baby. And so now, even though it's an inconvenience to you, you still kind of owe that to grandma, right? Like, you still have to respect grandma in that way. So when my kids were younger, grandma raised them, right?

So for us, it's very important that we show our kids that we're obligated to take care of each other in this society. And so this generational living has-- it's the whole community holding each other accountable to taking care of their older generation.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, and common in many cultures as well. And I understand she's involved in several businesses with her extended family. And I'm curious, did you ask her, what is her purpose? What's driving her and her reason?

CHRIS FARRELL: Nina, you know me too well. You know I had to ask this question, what is your purpose? And this is what she said.

MHONPAJ LEE VANG: My purpose? I just started up a show called Organic Living. And that-- after my dad passing away, I thought about that long and hard the other day. And I said, my purpose is to serve the next generation and preserve our culture because through your culture is where you will learn your roots. And you'll be grounded, and that's going to keep you sane.

NINA MOINI: Great stuff. Thank you so much for bringing us this story, Chris.

CHRIS FARRELL: Thanks a lot.

NINA MOINI: Chris Farrell, our MPR Senior Economics Contributor.