ANONYMOUS
HUDSON VALLEY, NY
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY DOING? (WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING, ETC)
I currently work on a pick your own orchard/cidery production in the Hudson Valley. It started as a pick your own farm.
It’s over 100 acres, a beautiful, picturesque farm, owned by a single family for a super long time. None of the kids wanted to be farmers. They were selling the property and another family bought it, so there are 3 owners all in the same family, husband, wife, and uncle. The pick your own operation is becoming quite popular, especially this year with Covid. It got really popular with people, especially in NYC, driving up from the city, a day a way, escaping to the countryside. There is a cidery and winery associated with it.
I am a farmer there, farming in the fields. I jump around and do some stuff with the cider production. I just graduated from college, and last summer I was working part-time to get my foot in the door. This year in June I started working full time.
The cidery is year-round. I will continue on through the winter.
It’s different in every region of the United States. One of my main concerns of finding a job was that I wanted to find something that was guaranteed full time throughout the year, and not just be done in November when most farms dismiss their labor needs for the most part. I am fortunate to find something that I can do year round even in winter.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN FARMING?
This is the end of my second season farming. I was full time last summer and then stopped for school and this is my second go around. I’m new, but also I care a lot about career farming. It does concern me because I struggle to see myself be able to have a sustainable lifestyle for myself doing only farming.
WHAT INITIALLY BROUGHT YOU TO THE FIELDS?
I really liked the idea of community through farming. I was a member of this club at my college where we went out and did farm volunteering for farms that specifically had a social justice focus and I fell in love with doing that and meeting people who were involved with food justice and food access. I started seeing the impact of farming all around me. I just feel like it's everything. The food that we eat, it’s nature, it’s design, it’s engineering. There’s a reason that agriculture is the basis of civilization, it’s everything all encompassing. I got really sucked into that. It excites me.
WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO FARM FOR SOMEONE ELSE (NOW OR IN THE PAST?)
For me, I don’t have the capital or wherewithal. One of the things I’m grateful now is that I’m learning while working, learning by doing. I didn’t go to school for anything ag related or grew up with that kind of knowledge. I do see it as a learning experience.
But also I don’t have the money to buy land.
In an ideal world, I see starting a farm, but I am concerned about the growing price of land.
WHAT ARE SOME ISSUES FOR FARMERS WORKING ON SOMEONE ELSE'S FARM - ISSUES THAT YOU'VE WITNESSED OR EXPERIENCED?
There’s a lot of lack of control. There’s always going to be ideas that me or my coworkers who don’t own the farm have that aren’t going to come to fruition because at the end of the day we aren’t the boss and don’t have a financial stake in the company. Even my boss, the farm manager, isn't the farm owner. He has the most acute sense of not having full control of the land that he’s doing most of the work, spending the most hours doing stuff.
So far I haven’t had that many issues. I feel very lucky because my case is kind of rare in the sense that the owners are pretty well-off, are willing to give me a good wage and are very open and willing to hear stuff. I haven’t had too many problems really yet.
It’s often unclear about things like sick leave and days off and stuff like that. For me, I think the owners are awesome and amazing people, but I don’t know quite where I stand with things like paid sick leave. One of my coworkers wanted to stay home and quarantine just in case for COVID, and she is paid hourly so she lost a whole week of work where she was just trying to protect her colleagues because the only place she is going is the farm to work with us.
CAN YOU TELL ME THE QUALITIES OF A DREAM FARM NOT LEADING TO OWNERSHIP - THAT YOU WOULD WANT TO WORK ON?
I think a dream farm would be where I’m able to work with other people and we all have our specialities, we try new things that we are interested in, we have autonomy over our own little section, but we are able to work together in the larger scheme of the farm. I also think that an interesting idea for an ideal farm would be shared ownership, the employees having some sort of ownership of the farm, rather than just be employees. Have some stake or equity that could accumulate the more they are there.
“There’s a lot of lack of control. There’s always going to be ideas that me or my coworkers who don’t own the farm have that aren’t going to come to fruition because at the end of the day, we aren’t the boss and don’t have a financial stake in the company.”
WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK?
I think that the more I spend with it, the more problems I’m able to identify which makes me want to fix them. A lot of people get into farming because of this picturesque ideal vocation, and to a certain extent that also happened to me when I first got into it. I think I want to fix things like inequities in the food system. The inequalities that undocumented farm laborers face, that’s a huge thing for me. The farm labor force and food system labor force as a whole, being able to make it somewhat more live-able for them.
Also access of farmers, not being able to afford land, being forced to rent land, which is unsustainable for their financial well being and not helpful for anyone.
I think farmer education is not where it necessarily needs to be in the country.
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE DIFFERENCE (IF ANY) BETWEEN A FARMER AND A "FARM WORKER"/"FARM EMPLOYEE" BESIDES PROPRIETORSHIP?
I do see a difference.
Personally, it’s a big question for me too. I consider myself a farmer, not a farm worker, but technically that is all I am right now. I don’t own property of any sort. I don’t have any agricultural being. I think more farm workers should be considered farmers. I don’t even know for myself what the difference technically is.
A farmer is anyone who works on a farm or produces any sort of food. I wouldn’t link it to someone who owns a farm. I don’t think in practice it has anything to do with ownership. I think it’s kind of what you do.
DO YOU CALL YOURSELF A FARMER? WHY OR WHY NOT.
I do. In the past, I would have said I want to be a farmer rather than I am a farmer. I am wondering now if that was the distinction of part time versus full time. Maybe I have more claim to the title because I do it every day for over 40 hours for the next foreseeable years of my life.
I think maybe the more comfortable I get and more skills I develop, I feel more able to use the term, rather than to say I just work at a farm.
WHAT KIND OF SUPPORT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR PEOPLE WORKING ON FARMS NOT THEIR OWN?
I think it would be really helpful to have a digestible database of what rights workers have, what rules, if any, there are for overtime and sick leave and stuff like that.
It’s an important thing, especially now, to be clear on. I did some research into New York state laws for ag workers. Here, I’m not a farmer again, I’m an ag worker. There were rules that I didn’t previously know, like you have to give your employees overtime for over 60 hours/ week. There were a few times in the summer that I probably was eligible, I don’t know because I wasn’t really paying attention. There are things you should know as a worker and be clear on.
WHAT IS YOUR OPINION/TAKE ON THE FARMER LUNCH? (DO YOU TAKE LUNCH, DO YOU SKIP LUNCH, DO YOU ENJOY TAKING LUNCH WITH YOUR CREW - FOR COMMUNITY BUILDING, IS THERE PRESSURE TO BE SOCIAL....)
I love lunch. I eat lunch with my coworkers every day and we usually take a full hour and it’s awesome. It’s really fun to get to talk to everyone. The owners of the farm don’t live there full-time, so they’re not often here when we’re doing stuff, so that kind of changes dynamics when they’re there, we doddle a little less at lunch.
I think everyone should take a nice break at lunch.
Our lunch is an unpaid lunch.
The farm manager is also kind of in and out. No one keeps track. It’s on the individual to know when it’s time to get back to work.