We are not farm owners, but we are the hearts of the operation.

When you think of a farmer, who comes to mind? Someone who owns their own farm business, maybe the land that they farm on, too? A white cis man, perhaps? What about the farmers who work behind the scenes and are not the owners: the ones harvesting the crops, planting the seeds, maintaining the fields? We may not make appearances at farmers’ market stands or get our photos taken for the newspaper article highlighting local food. In fact, we may not even get acknowledged to the public by the farm owners. These are not our farms, but we are crucial to the farm operations and the food system.

Not Our Farm (NOF) is a project and community of farmers who have chosen farming as a career but do not have their own farm business or land.

We are farm workers, farm employees, members of farm crews, farm managers, apprentices and interns.

These are our field notes. These are our stories of what brought us to the fields, what keeps us coming back, what broke us, what built us back up, our laughter, tears, joy and harvests.

NOF strives to amplify these voices + works to support and CELEBRATE career farmers working on farms that are not their own.

NOF also seeks to provide visibility to the abuses that can happen in the name of farming. Abuses that happen at operations, no matter the shape, size, or growing practice (yes, even at your friendly small organic farm).

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Founder/Program Manager of Not Our Farm (began in 2019)

Anita Adalja (all pronouns)
Anita has farmed on farms not her own for over 10 years in Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Virginia, New Mexico, New York City & California. This project is dedicated to all those she has worked alongside, and those she will in the future. Anita can be reached at anita@notourfarm.org

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Special thanks to Thea Klein-Mayer for the Not Our Farm logo designs.

Endless gratitude to Aaron Adalja for teaching himself coding to help with the website. Above and beyond brotherly duties.