Victor
Guanajuato, Mexico
Farmer
I came to the U.S. twenty years ago. I came to become a maintenance welder for a ranch. In the ranch where I was supposed to work, someone else took the job. So, I started working in the field. It was a ranch of onions and that is how I started harvesting and weeding.
The ranch was not organic but after that I started working in an organic company. From then on, we have been working with organic products. That is the only company I worked for. I started working here two and a half years ago. I took the ALBA training five years ago. I took it as a part time job. Now, I am working here full time.
I have seven and a half acres of land. Since I started the Alba training, I liked the work system, and I continued growing culinary herbs for example rosemary, chives thyme, mint, tarragon, and oregano. They are the products with which I have the most experience. We sell our herbs to a big company that buys our products in pounds and bunches.
In my previous job I worked doing weeding, growing, irrigation of herbs was a foreman, so it was easy to continue working with herbs. I am grateful to my boss because on one occasion I was in a meeting that he arranged and I heard that the culinary herbs were a good market. We only need to find out the customers and to have a good quality product. This market has less competition and our production has been good the last few years.
I contribute to providing healthy products. An organic product can be eaten by a small kid and even an elder. This is safe and the culinary herbs give a nice taste to any dish. We believed that our small area contributes thirty and fifty thousand pounds of organic healthy products.
My goal is to grow more. To have better products and to continue in the organic area. This year we increased the number of strawberries. I want to invest in structure in order to increase the quality of my products with a better color and taste. With more structures, I can extend the season of the crops.
I would like to have a social security number and have access to credit and more access to land so I can grow my business.