Maria Catalán

Maria is the first Latina farm worker turned farm owner.

For Maria Catalán, stewarding land is ancestral. Her grandfather was a successful farmer and cattle rancher from Guerrero, Mexico, and migrated to Texas under the Bracero Program in the 1960s. Maria moved to Salinas Valley, California, when she was 25 years old with four children, farm work experience, and a future of opportunity waiting to be harvested.

For the next seven years, Maria worked as a field laborer for large-scale vegetable farms and lived the gruesome reality of industrial agriculture's demand and dehumanization. In 1994, Maria's career took a turn when she was invited to a 6-year organic farm training program at the Rural Development Center in Salinas. "I decided to commit to the education program out of my curiosity of organic farming. This was how my ancestors farmed and I wanted to continue that tradition."

Maria is an activist fighting for migrant worker’s rights and the development of an equitable food system where access to fresh produce should be a right, not a privilege. She worked with a non-profit group called PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights) to deliver CSA shares to marginalized communities in San Francisco's Mission District. Her CSA programs have also collaborated with schools, churches, and homeless garden projects in Santa Cruz to feed her community and spread the bounty of fresh produce.

Maria also founded her own non-profit, Pequeños Agricultores en California (PAC), to help migrant farmers acquire their organic certification and assist farmers when applying for grants and loans for owning their own land. "This is my life mission. To feed my family and my community while helping bridge the gap of an unequal food system." 

Maria Catalán was awarded national recognition from the USDA for her organic farm and community outreach programs. In 2008 Maria Catalán was honored by the Center for Latino Farmers for "her tireless work in advocating for organic farming and assisting limited resource producers using her own funds."

Maria is currently farming on 15 acres in Hollister, CA with her family. She hopes to expand her farm acreage, incorporate more regenerative practices, and incorporate her non profit, PAC. Donate to Maria and Catalan Farms below.