Even before it was a country, the United States has drawn people eager to realize the opportunities that it affords to new arrivals. For refugees living in the United States, however, their arrival often accompanies a traumatic break from their homelands because of conflict or persecution.
The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement initiated a program in 1998 to help refugee communities in the United States to feel somewhat closer to home, by financing farms and gardens that allow refugees to grow crops that are traditionally grown in their home countries but are not available here.
The New York Times featured an article describing the budding “entrepreneurial movement” of refugee agriculture, which is not only producing familiar food and viable incomes for refugees, but is also introducing these new agricultural products to Americans through restaurants and markets.
Image credit: The New York Times
