Description
Denise Pieratos, along with her sister Tracey and her two daughters Dani and Nikki are creating Harvest Nation, an innovative company with ambitions to transform agriculture in Minnesota. Members of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, we met with Denise and Dani at their home on the Bois Forte reservation in northern Minnesota.
Worried about global climate change, sustainability and healthy diets, Harvest Nation plans on growing crops and fresh produce year round at an indoor aeroponics farm that would initially supply the reservation and nearby community. (Plants are suspended with aeroponics so that roots are free hanging and exposed to air; roots are misted at certain intervals with a nutrient-water mix optimal for the type of crop being grown.)
Entrepreneurship is never easy. A classic bootstrap startup business, they’re building Harvest Nation on the side, putting their own money and time into it. These remarkable native women confront additional barriers to funding: They’re native; they’re women; and they live in a rural area. “I think the challenge is what we've faced all our life. We do not look like the face of American business,” says Denise. “We don't.”
No matter where you live, the price of buying a home is out of reach for growing numbers of people. Young adults and people living on low and unstable incomes in particular find that they’re priced out of the market.
The high price of home ownership is one reason why forming coops is...
Published 01/18/22
Michael Laverdure is from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. He’s a partner with the local architectural firm DSGW and the founder of the First American Design Studio. We met with at his office in Lake Elmo, Minnesota–a small town some 14 miles outside the Twin Cities. He is part of a growing...
Published 01/03/22