LAWRENCE — The slang term “touch grass” encourages people to step away from the internet or devices and connect with the real world. New research from the University of Kansas has found that a project that helps resettled refugees and immigrants learn sustainable farming has many of the term’s same benefits, improving people’s mental and physical well-being and training them to run independent agricultural businesses.
New Roots is a four-year training program that helps resettled refugees, immigrants and English language learner farmers develop sustainable agriculture-based businesses. Participants lease a quarter acre from the farm’s 7.5-acre site in Kansas City, Missouri.
Joonmo Kang, assistant professor, and Cheryl Holmes, research project director in KU’s School of Social Welfare, learned about the program in 2022 when Kang took one of his classes to the farm on a field trip. After that, the research team took part in the group’s monthly meetings, attended events and got to know staff, trainees and volunteers. They formed a research group and held focus groups with staff first to determine what they wanted to know about the program and interviewed farmers to learn about their experiences.
Participants regularly cited the benefits to their mental and physical health that the program provided. Many work full-time jobs in settings like warehouses, meatpacking plants or in the service industry. They frequently compared their full-time jobs to the New Roots experience.
At their full-time jobs, which they called “company jobs,” farmers often faced lack of flexibility such as a lack of sick leave for themselves or to care for families, admonishment for talking to co-workers and requirements to make repetitive motions for hours on end.
In contrast, farmers reported being free to connect with others, set their own hours and feel a sense of value for their labor while they learned new skills at the farm.
“That sense of flexibility and agency meant so much to them,” Kang said. “The independence they feel highlights the importance and value of labor. Financially, they may make more at their company job, but they still chose to take part in New Roots. The sense of camaraderie was also very important.
“New Roots was a place where farmers could work for something of their own, building something as entrepreneurs,” Kang said. “As one farmer put it, ‘You are your own boss.’ One shared that he loves volunteering as an interpreter for newly resettled refugees, something his ‘company’ job never allowed but that farming does.”
The study, written with the two organizers of New Roots, Benjamin Carpenter of Cultivate KC and Kristin Selby of Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, was published in the Journal of Community Practice. The research team also produced a report with its findings for the organization, which was translated into all of the native languages of the participants.
Participants learn a wide range of sustainable and small‑scale farming skills. They practice climate‑resilient growing methods; receive instruction in pest management, equipment use, business planning, taxes and record keeping; and build experience in selling their produce through farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs and wholesale channels.
Through these activities, farmers develop marketing skills, customer engagement strategies and the practical knowledge needed to operate an independent farm business, the researchers said. Many participants had farming experience before coming to the United States, but New Roots provided an opportunity to learn U.S. business practices, laws, tax structure and more while also offering English language classes during the nongrowing season.
“I think it’s a unique, exciting combination, taking the skills and knowledge they have and learning to expand them and fit them within the American environment,” Holmes said.
The study also highlighted how meaningful connection was to everyone involved. Kang said that at one of the first meetings he attended, farmers and staff took turns holding a farmer’s newborn baby, while children from both families and staff played together around the farm as their parents worked.
He also noted moments of shared community, such as farmers gathering for a meal of traditional Burmese food prepared by one of the trainees. Many farmers also shared how much they enjoyed connecting with customers at the farmer’s markets.
“This gave them a sense of meaning and of being part of the broader Kansas City community,” Kang said. “They were not just selling produce but also bringing homegrown plants like mchicha, sharing recipes and exchanging knowledge. It wasn't only selling produce, it was reciprocity.”
Kang, also co-director of KU’s Climate and Ecological Justice Collaborative, highlighted the community-engaged process of the research as the research team deliberately took its time to get to know the program and people involved. Community‑based participatory research isn’t the fastest way to producing academic findings, he said, but it makes it possible to see how people build relationships and collaborate through shared work, mutual learning and everyday interaction.
“I think how we do research matters just as much as what we research. This slower approach, getting community input, gathering feedback and co-creating is, I think, aligned with the ecosocial work approach,” Kang said. “Just as New Roots creates belonging through farming, our research team tried to create its own form of belonging, one built through years of showing up, listening and building trust before ever asking a question. We wanted to be mindful, not extractive, and provide findings of value for the organization and the people it serves.”
Journal of Community Practice
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Empowering Communities Through Sustainable Urban Agriculture: A Case Study of Farmer Training Program for Resettled Refugees
23-Jul-2026