Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] was CSA worker payment: now interns

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Allan.Balliett" <allan.balliett AT gmail.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] was CSA worker payment: now interns
  • Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 00:45:55 -0500

Personally, my perspective is that if you have someone doing work on
your farm they deserve to be compensated and that training is a cost of
doing business. I don't accept the "we can't afford to pay them" excuse
from Walmart, McDonalds or the company down the street and I don't think
it should be used by a farmer.

Andy -

A number of the farmers that started eco-ag farming back in the 80's when we did no longer offer paid internships. They still offer internships, but their logic is sort of a flip of your own. The do not think that farm internships should be paid internships.

They say that students are not paid by universities to learn, so why should a farmer pay a student farmer to learn?

The answer for us used to be that we thought it important that our work on the farm was more valueable to everyone if in the process of producing our crops we also produced new farmers.

Drawing from similar experiences as shaped the position of the farmers I mentioned above, we've decided over the years that we can't really afford a lot of the considerations interns bring to the mix and prefer to work with people who come to the farm for 'just a job.'

I have to admit that I find it eerie working on the farm with people who are more interested in their wages than they are in plants or animals.

-Allan in WV




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page