It was only mid-May, but the afternoon temperature already had climbed to nearly 90 degrees. Wearing a wide-brimmed hat woven from bamboo, James Khup was the only person tending 15-acre Bamboo Creek Farm in Stone Mountain. It wasn’t because his fellow farmers couldn’t stand the heat; natives of Myanmar, in Southeast Asia, they’re used to hot weather. It’s because they couldn’t bear the sight of the farm.
Bamboo Creek is lush with vegetables, fruit and herbs right now. There are huge bulbous beets, bunches of forest green kale, row upon row of Napa cabbage, carrots and squash. It’s all ripe for harvesting. Yet, Khup and his fellow farmers can’t reap what they sowed.
Six weeks ago, the crops were tainted when floodwater from nearby Snapfinger Creek rose over 12-foot banks and left the farm in 10 inches of standing water. With the crops unmarketable because of food safety issues, Khup’s only option is to till the vegetables back into the soil.
“Right now, I cannot do it,” Khup said, as he looked around at the plants that will wither in the field.
Bamboo Creek is a collaborative farm that plays host to four businesses operated by farmers who came to Atlanta from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. It's one of eight farm and garden sites in DeKalb County managed or co-managed by Global Growers Network, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that connects international farmers, who have come to the U.S. as legal refugees or immigrants, with local opportunities in sustainable agriculture.
<<PHOTOS: The Global Growers Network
Global Growers Executive Director Robin Chanin spent an hour walking with me through the four acres of lost vegetable production. The late April flood washed away $50,000 worth of investment and another estimated $300,000 in potential earnings.
“It’s a significant amount of income. For one family, it’s the sole source of income,” Chanin said. “Everyone is pretty depressed about this.”
The impact of the loss extends beyond these farming families who have lost their livelihoods. It includes the nearly 150 members of the Global Growers farm share program, one of the largest in the metro Atlanta area, who won’t receive a weekly share of crops. Nor will wholesale customers, farmers market patrons, or the grocery stores that stock specialty produce grown for an Asian clientele.
The families who work the soil at Bamboo Creek Farm use some of the crops to feed their own families. Even though they can’t sell what they grew at the property, they lobbied Global Growers at least to let them harvest the food to feed their own families.
The answer: “The threat of contamination is real,” Chanin said. Produce that typically might be consumed raw could result in sickness, especially to children, the elderly and those with a weak immune system, they cautioned the farmers.
Some have taken their chances. In a section of land that Khup tends, some Napa cabbages have been cut to their cores.
Yet, these farmers also have found another way to keep tummies filled since the storm. Khup pulled out his phone to show me photos of the backyard of his home in Clarkston. He had tilled every inch of it, all the way to the back porch, and planted eggplant, tomatoes, chiles and more.
According to Chanin, Khup and the other Bamboo Creek farmers have done the same in the backyards of other Burmese refugees whom they’ve befriended since arriving in Georgia a few years ago.
Global Growers likewise has tried to tend to the immediate needs of these farmers. Soon after the flood, the organization sent a letter to supporters, informing them of the situation, as well as opportunities to give — including direct donations on its website, and, for farm shareholders, the option to donate all or a portion of this season’s deposit to the Bamboo Creek farmers. Some 70% of members elected to give back their deposit money, which totaled $17,000. The funds were dispersed among the farmers in early May, to help them meet basic needs.
“The farmers are grateful,” Chanin said. “But, they do not want charity. They want jobs again. We are looking for high-quality job placement for them.”
Global Grower’s 10-person full-time staff continues to work on fundraising efforts, through partnerships with restaurants like Farm Burger and spirits brand Brown-Forman. (Donations to support Global Growers and its network of farmers can be made at globalgrowers.org. To stay up-to-date on recovery efforts, volunteer opportunities and other ways to help, follow Global Growers on Facebook.)
Still, rebuilding doesn’t come with simple solutions.
Chanin worries about severe weather events that could affect the farm in the future. The organization already had been looking to move the farm to a different site. “That needs to be accelerated as part of the regrouping,” she said.
Whatever the next iteration of the farm is, “We’re hoping to have Bamboo Farm 2.0 to be bigger and better,” Chanin said. “We will recover from this.”
As I looked around the farm, I saw signs of resilience, signs that were there even before the flood.
Five acres of bamboo serve as more than a buffer between Snapfinger Creek and the farm. The bamboo has been harvested again and again — its shoots to feed its farmers, the mature sticks used for everything from small shade-giving shacks to a greenhouse, to posts for trellis fencing, to ground borders, the lengths of round hard wood fitting one inside the other perfectly, like pipework.
I saw a bamboo swing set with two rope swings, made by one of the farmers so that his daughters have their own mini playground to enjoy as he works in the field. Nearby was a row of strawberries, grown just for his little girls, because they love the little red rubies so much.
As much as these refugees have embraced modern ag advances, like hoop houses and drip irrigation, it’s their ingenuity that this Westerner admires.
Standing in the shade of his own shack, Khup held a massive bamboo basket. His hands clasped the thin rims, and he began to shake it. Drying pumpkin seeds did a little dance, waiting for Khup to plant them.
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