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Vietnam

Donald Canton, 2007 graduate of New Entry training program

Farmer Profile —Donald Canton

Donald Canton, originally from Vietnam, joined the New Entry program in 2006. Donald farms on a 1/2 acre plot, located on conservation land in Maynard, MA, where he grows hot pepers, sweet pepers, basil, tomatoes, potato greens, lettuce, spinach, chard, cilantro, beets, kale, carrots and basil. He has lived in the U.S. since 1990, and he speaks English, Mandaran Chinese, and Vietnamese. Prior to coming to the U.S., Donald grew mushrooms, flowers, sugarcane and bananas and raised chicken, fish and shrimp on a small farm in rural Vietnam. In addition to his interest in soil farming, Donald is also interested in automation and computers in relation to aquaphonics.

Donald manages to fit farming into his schedule around his full time responsibilities as a dental technician and lab manager. Prior to his job as a dental technician, Donald worked as a computer engineer.

Country Facts

Originating in what is now southern China and northern Vietnam, the Vietnamese people pushed southward over 2 millennia to occupy the entire eastern seacoast of the Indochinese Peninsula. Ethnic Vietnamese constitute about 90% of Vietnam's population.

Vietnam's approximately 2.3 million ethnic Chinese, concentrated mostly in southern Vietnam, constitute Vietnam's largest minority group. Long important in the Vietnamese economy, Vietnamese of Chinese ancestry have been active in rice trading, milling, real estate, and banking in the south and shop keeping, stevedoring, and mining in the north. Restrictions on economic activity following reunification of the north and south in 1975 and the subsequent but unrelated general deterioration in Vietnamese-Chinese relations sent chills through the Chinese-Vietnamese community. In 1978-79, some 450,000 ethnic Chinese left Vietnam by boat as refugees (many officially encouraged and assisted) or were expelled across the land border with China.

Location: Occupying the eastern coastline of the Southeast Asian peninsula, Vietnam is bounded by China on the north, by Laos and Cambodia on the west, and by the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea on the east and south.
Capital: Hanoi
Area: 332,642 sq. km (equivalent in size to Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee combined)  
Climate: Tropical monsoon climate
Terrain: Diverse terrain - mountains and coastal delta
Land Use: 21% arable; 28% forest and woodland; 51% other
Environmental Issues: Timber resources are still substantial, particularly in the north, but deforestation resulting from highland resettlement, shifting cultivation, and commercial cutting is an increasingly serious problem.
Population: 85.2 million
Life Expectancy: 67
GDP: $61 billion
Under 5 mortality rate (per 1000 live births): 22
Ethnic Groups: Vietnamese (85%-90%), Chinese (3%), Hmong, Thai, Khmer, Cham, mountain groups
Languages: Vietnamese (official), English (increasingly favored as a second language), some French, Chinese, and Khmer, mountain area languages.
Major Religions: Buddhism, Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, Christian (predominantly Roman Catholic, some Protestant), animism, Islam.

Agriculture

Agriculture still employs a majority of the population (though it produces a smaller share of the GDP than industry and services), and rice is by far the leading crop. The Mekong and Red river deltas are among the world's greatest rice-growing regions, the former benefiting from heavy rainfall and rich alluvial soil and the latter notable for its elaborate network of dikes, dams, canals, and locks that provide irrigation and flood control. Fishing and aquaculture comprise an important industry, and marine products are a major export, especially shrimp.

Agriculture Products: Rice, followed by peanuts, corn, sweet potatoes, beans, coffee, cotton, tea, pepper, and sugarcane.

Traditional Foods

The Vietnam cuisine reflects long years of cultural exchange with China, Cambodia and, more recently, France. As elsewhere in Southeast Asia, rice is the main staple, though bread--especially baguettes introduced by the French--is ubiquitous and usually very good. Dishes are generally served at the same time rather than by course, and eaten with long-grain rice, nuoc mam or fish sauce, and a wide range of fresh herbs and vegetables. Meals are generally eaten with chopsticks or, if European food, with knife and fork