BRIAN HAUSMAN
CORRALES, NM
Brian is currently in a management position at a diversified production vegetable farm in New Mexico. He is going into his 8th season farming on farms not his own.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY DOING? (WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING, ETC)
Currently I’m in a management position at a diversified production vegetable farm in New Mexico. I oversee a lot of things, mostly a lot of managing the crew members, keeping people up to date with daily tasks, what the goals are for the day, checking quality, making sure we are on the track all day.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN FARMING?
I’ve been farming as a full-time job since 2014. I’m going into my 8th season. Before that, I dipped my toes in the water with some ag work. I worked part time on some farms, volunteered on farms, helped friends with farms. In 2014, I started in upstate New York on a production farm. I worked with really skilled people up there. The people who owned the farm were pretty great people and I learned a lot from them> I really began to pursue it as potential career path.
WHAT INITIALLY BROUGHT YOU TO THE FIELDS?
I think initially it was about the ideology for me - the political implications surrounding growing your own food and relationship with changing the food system, the broader ways that farming related to social justice. That’s what got me into it at first.
I’d say that I learned a lot through doing it - the ideas I had before going into it - I didn’t have a really informed opinion about it. I thought I knew what it was and learned it was something totally different.
I guess I kinda didn’t think about the physicality of it too much and didn’t think a whole lot of what it means to produce food in a larger economic system. Working on production farms is actually divorced from a lot of the ideology that I went into it believing in.
We’re selling food at a really high price to those who can afford it.
WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO FARM FOR SOMEONE ELSE (NOW OR IN THE PAST?)
Initially I started working for other people to learn - I had no idea what I was doing, growing up on Long Island, not connected to agriculture and needing to learn from other people. I continue to work for other people because I don’t have the resources to start my own farm.
Ultimately I think that would be really great to have my own farm, but I don’t know if that is entirely an option for me having access to money to start it and I don't quite see how that is going to happen.
It’s funny because you're in this position because you want to learn how to farm. I did get paid hourly my first year, you get paid a low wage, you have already learned it after so many years, but you don’t have any money to start your own farm. You really get stuck in a rut: you try to learn, you get the knowledge, but you’re not any closer financially to starting something.
I wish there was a path to make a decent living in farming without starting your own business.
I’ve hit the ceiling. I’ve been in management roles for 6 seasons now and I just am not making any more money than when I started. I wish there was a way to do this going forward - I’d be perfectly content working for someone else if I could make a living doing it. I think that is what will drive me away from farming if I ever stop. It’s not the work itself, I think not seeing a future for myself doing it.
I think we have to address that if we want there to be a next generation of farmers, it’s becoming a less and less viable option for people. It’s a real thing we have to address as a society.
WHAT ARE SOME ISSUES FOR FARMERS WORKING ON SOMEONE ELSE'S FARM - ISSUES THAT YOU'VE WITNESSED OR EXPERIENCED?
Health and safety issues are a big problem in small agriculture. It’s a number of reasons, lack of time for farm owners or resources, or just generally not really caring in some places. Proper training on how to safety do things is oftentimes non existent. Pre Pandemic and during the pandemic, I’ve seen a lot of instances of lack of PPE, inexperienced people using machinery and materials in an unsafe way.
In some situations there are short term consequences (immediate danger), but sometimes people using material on an organic farm that are carcinergic or not doing it safely. Farm owners don’t tell you about those things, I’m not sure if they even know about it.
I’m a workplace safety person so I pay a lot of attention. I do a lot of research of the materials we use and I take photos of the warning labels. I try to spread that information to the crew, but it’s crazy how widespread that is.
I’ve worked through injuries that required time to heal, but you can’t get off time off to keep your job. I’ve seen other people with workplace injuries who have to learn to work through it or live with it.
People not having access to healthcare or time off or money to take time off. The lack of access to bathrooms is kind of wild. Usually thought of as an industrial ag problem (crops being recalled on national scale) conditions are so bad on these farms, that’s definitely true, but that problem is also very true for small farms.
CAN YOU TELL ME THE QUALITIES OF A DREAM FARM NOT LEADING TO OWNERSHIP - THAT YOU WOULD WANT TO WORK ON?
There are some obvious things - benefits and pay that would make you stick around for a long time. That would help you get to a place where you can buy a house, start a family, go on vacation, retire - all that stuff would be the really big ones.
A dream farm would have all of that and would keep people around for sure.
Also clarity of roles and expectations - it’s been pretty vague in my experience when you work on farms. I’ve had it happen to myself a couple times - hired for a specific role and end up doing a bunch of different roles and my pay remains the same. Those situations kind of happen without a conversation. Suddenly I’m feeling stressed out and stretched thin and not enjoying it anymore.
Transparency about the business end of things on a farm, how the farm is doing as a business. It’s just kind of an odd thing to not know. Are we doing ok this year or are we not? Sometimes you can think , am I going to lose my job? Is this thing going under? I have no idea.
“I wish there was a way to make a decent living in farming without starting your own business. I’ve hit the ceiling. I’ve been in management roles for 6 years now and I just am not making any more money than when I started.”
WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK?
I do love the work. I love all of the tasks of farming. Anything from harvesting, to seeding, packing orders, tractor work. One of the cool things about farming - there are no real right or wrong ways to approach it. There is always something to improve on, it keeps me really motivated, learning each year how to do something a little better or differently. I enjoy learning from other farmers how they do it. I really love the day to day tasks, usually not what my gripe is with farming.
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE DIFFERENCE (IF ANY) BETWEEN A FARMER AND A "FARM WORKER"/"FARM EMPLOYEE" BESIDES PROPRIETORSHIP?
I don’t think there should be a difference in those words but there definitely is. I think there is a prestige to being a farmer in a weird specific way or within a specific community, but farm workers don’t really carry same prestige.
At farming conferences when asked what the name of the farm is and I say I work at a farm, I don’t own it, they suddenly lose interest in what you have to say. There is farm owner solidarity in this way that I’m on the outside of and I don’t quite understand.
Relating to that - being recognized by the pubic is the big difference. The face of the farm in magazines and interviews and pictures in the grocery store, it’s always the farm owner and hardly ever the farm workers. And often it’s the farm owners posting for a photograph doing something they don’t usually do, it’s what the farm workers does. Thats a really aggravating thing about farm owners and farm workers.
You don’t see the guy ever unless he’s posing for a photograph pretending to do work that the workers do.
DO YOU CALL YOURSELF A FARMER? WHY OR WHY NOT.
For sure. I think that is just the answer. It’s important for farm workers to call themselves farmers to establish that, to claim their place.
WHAT KIND OF SUPPORT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR PEOPLE WORKING ON FARMS NOT THEIR OWN?
Having a network of other farm workers really helps and that is one thing I thought of - farming can be pretty isolating geographically and because you work so much you don’t really have time to do the social things that maybe other people get to. I just think it’s important to reach out for that kind of support and people who aren’t at the same job as you - you can spin your wheels with your coworkers, but getting perspective from people in a similar position helps.
In a broader, more political take - farm workers shouldn’t always consider the path to farm ownership as one that is done by themselves. Look to teaming up with people who are also farm workers who don’t have the resources to start their own farm - look at ways to pursue cooperatively. It could look a number of different ways. I there is a lot of support among farm workers- figuring out ways to build those networks. I’m not sure what it looks like, but it helps.
The Hudson valley had a bunch of farmer mixers where you’d hang out with other people who farmed and you would get to meet a lot of people who were in the same position as you - you figure out how to make it work for yourselves.
ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE ABOUT YOURSELF & YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FARMING? WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?
I guess I wish there was a path to make a decent living in farming without starting your own business.
I’ve hit the ceiling, I’ve been in management roles for 6 seasons now and I just am not making any more money than when I started. I wish there was a way to do this going forward. I’d be perfectly content working for someone else if I could make a living doing it. I think that is what will drive me away from farming if I ever stop. It’s not the work itself, I think not seeing a future for myself doing it. I think we have to address that if we want there to be a next generation of farmers. It’s becoming a less and less viable option for people. It’s a real thing we have to address as a society.
Looking into the future - the toll farming takes on your body. I don’t really see how one can continue to be a farm worker if your body is no longer able to do the work. What is the path as you age or become injured, a way that you can continue to be in that world. As a farm owner that is definitely possible, but as a farm worker I don’t think that’s possible.
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’ve had the whole spectrum of farm lunch. At the farm in upstate New York, we did a rotating schedule for who made lunch that day amongst the whole crew. It was really great, because you’d only have to think about lunch once every two weeks. That saves you a lot of time in your free time. It makes quality of life outside of work a lot better not having to worry about packing lunch.
In Washington, we ate lunch as a crew. We usually had lunch at a picnic table. A lot of bonding that happened at that table.
Currently, I live down the street from the farm where I work so I go home for lunch and get away from everybody.
Lunch has always been unpaid.
