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.”