Sowing the seeds of agriculture, a cross-cultural workshop in Marshall aimed to help Latino farmers translate their skills into economic prosperity in Missouri

"I'm looking for opportunities for them, so they are aware that this country offers all kind of opportunities," Extension Specialist Nadia Navarrete-Tindall said.

Navarrete-Tindall came to the U.S. from El Salavador 21 years ago to pursue her masters and doctoral degrees. She decided to stay, with the idea of spreading her knowledge to Latinos in mid-Missouri.

She does it by creating bilingual workshops because she hopes to show how simple ideas can reap big rewards and, "to see more diversity because again my interest is in conservation and I'm always trying to get Latinos involve with conservation issues and just to learn about their surroundings," she said. 

Navarrete-Tindall worked with Lincoln University and the Univesity of Missouri, inviting experts to speak about issues and topics related to agriculuture.

Construction Worker Arles Martinez is one of my people who benefited from Navarrete-Tindall's help..

"Our produce save us a lot of money because you know how tomatoes get so expensive sometime in the year. But here we don't have to go to the store and spend money buying them. If we need vegetables we just go to our back yard," Martinez said.

Navarrete-Tindall's goal goes beyond agriculture. She works with the Hispanic community and the community in general with one purpose.

"To integrate the communities the local communities with the Hispanic community and the hispanic to learn from the local community and vise versa," she said.

Navarrete goes to the families backyards instead of bringing participants to government facilities, hoping to encourage more interest with this personal approach.

"I would like to, for example, there are peple that are interested in agriculture but they are not doing it at this point because they are working other jobs. Just they have to learn that there are ways to start slowly," she said.

The workshop also provided health booths, recycling education and activities for kids, hoping to plant the seeds of interest in agriculture.

Hispanic Heritage Month continues through Oct. 15. To view this story in Spanish, click the link to the left.