Poultry-centered regenerative agriculture expert to speak at SJU

Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin will be speaking at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, at room 102, Art Center, Saint John’s University to conclude the Latino/Latin American Studies Fall 2017 Series.

His speech, which is free and open to the public, is titled “De-industrializing Agriculture in the Shadow of the Green Man.” The Latino/Latin American Studies Fall 2017 Series has as its theme, “Indigenous Cultures and Colonial Legacies in the Americas.”

Haslett-Marroquin is currently the chief strategy officer for the Main Street Project, a program based in Northfield, Minnesota, that concentrates on constructing regenerative food and agricultural systems in order to promote positive changes socially, economically and environmentally. Through the project, Haslett-Marroquin’s current focus is on putting together blueprints for new community projects in the United States, Guatemala and Mexico.

He has worked for the United Nations Development Program’s Bureau for Latin America and as an adviser for the World Council of Indigenous People. Some of his accomplishments include being a founding member of the Fair Trade Federation in 1994, and later served as the director of the Fair Trade Program for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. In 1996, he led the creation of the Minnesota based fair-trade coffee brand, Peace Coffee.

His first experience with economic development projects was in 1988, when he worked with indigenous Guatemalan communities.

A native of Guatemala, he was born in Puente de Plátanos and made it his life’s work to help those disadvantaged because of unfair and harmful farming practices. He has used his knowledge of poultry-centered farming practices to create the structure of the Main Street Project.

Haslett-Marroquin graduated from Augsburg College (now University) with an international business major and communications minor. He has studied in Guatemala at the Universidad de San Carlos and earned his agronomy degree at the Central National School of Agriculture.

In his book, “In the Shadow of the Green Man”, he shares how the suffering he has seen caused by environmentally harmful farming practices influenced him to take action through poultry-centered farming. He has applied indigenous practices to the innovative system that is now the heart of Main Street Project’s work.