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  • From: "Dori Green" <dorigreen00 AT hotmail.com>
  • To: market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: market-farming digest: Apprenticeship Clarification
  • Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 09:01:02 -0400


I do indeed know of farms who take on "apprentices" and work them 14 hours a day, seven days a week. They don't live in tents; their housing is below that standard of comfort and sanitation. I've seen them happily inhabiting a chicken coop.

I will not name the farms because it's obvious that those apprentices don't feel abused or they would complain to the labor department themselves. They must feel that they're getting something of value or they wouldn't be there or they would complain.

But do please allow me to clarify that I do NOT engage in those practices here. I never require more than 40 hours per week from my apprentices -- I don't usually have more than 10 hours myself to put into their dedicated instruction, it's summer, Corning is a tourist center, and there are other things for all of us to enjoy. Plus if we can't get everything done in 40 hours, we aren't planning things right or we're trying to do too much and we should cut back.

If somebody needs to have cash money, I arrange a 20-hour weekly apprenticeship so that they can take a part-time job in town.

Finally, I seldom find people who are up to doing physical work for more than four or five hours a day. I want this experience to be pleasant for them, not torture!

Apprentices have housing options here. If they want to go the cheap route, they can camp for free if they cover the rental cost of the chemical toilet -- the more apprentices in the tent village, the lower the cost. They have storm sanctuary, meals, TV, and shower privileges in the house. If they want more comfort, they can rent a furnished room in the house for as little as $50 a week.

Construction projects for this summer include a community outdoor bread oven, a wood-fired sauna, and a simple hot tub. We have swimming privileges in the neighbor's pond next door and apprentices can use my canoe any time.

Apprentices here learn organic growing, seed saving, animal husbandry and training of pack and harness animals (equines and goats), construction, small engine maintenance, old house maintenance, marketing, community service, volunteer management, record keeping, cooking, natural crafts including shearing and spinning, and wildlife refuge management. I also teach creative and technical writing, sketching, and photography. Finally, every apprentice is intimately exposed to the joys and difficulties in developing a working farm business with no debt other than the basic mortgage -- and creative ways to retire that.

Each apprentice develops their specific curriculum with me and I've had some interest from the local community college in setting up course credit with a mentor instructor from their staff, about a $400 fee to them.

Apprentices get to attend all of our half-day on-farm workshops for free in exchange for helping to set up and clean up. We hold different workshops every Sunday afternoon, and they cost $25 per person. Our 10-week summer apprentices are getting a $250 value right there. I also haul apprentices along to the August NOFA conference in Massachusetts.

If our production increases to the point that we make a profit thanks to the efforts of apprentices and volunteers, we have a program in place to distribute those profits among the people who made them happen, everything already in the database to figure the percentage of profit sharing based on the percentage of total work contributed. That's the biggest reason I haven't converted to formal not-for-profit status; NFPs aren't permitted to do this!

I have put a lot of years and a lot of work into developing this program, which is certainly worth a few hours of effort on the part of the people who come here to learn. I am not trolling for "free slave labor", which continues to be the first reaction I get from people when I admit to accepting occasional apprentices. I do tend to resent the farms and farmers who have created that image of apprenticeship.

Dori Green
Ash Grove Community Farm & Center for Sustainable Living
Corning, NY

http://www.ic.org/agrove
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