CHARLOTTE MOORE
Truchas, NM / Massachusetts
Charlotte has been farming for 3 years. She just finished an 8 month apprenticeship at an heirloom apple orchard and tree nursery in New Mexico.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY DOING? (WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING, ETC)
I just finished an 8 month apprenticeship at an heirloom apple orchard and tree nursery. We do our own grafting and propagation. We sell fruit trees and also native trees and shrubs from New Mexico - anytime of vegetation that will thrive in that area, that’s endemic to that location.
I’ve been learning a lot about propagation and grafting and holistic orchard care, holistic sprays, fertility and soil heath.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN FARMING?
I’m going on my third year. I started farming in Boston at the Urban Farming Institute. It’s another apprenticeship. There are 7 different plots, each a quarter of an acre. They grows thousands of pounds of food. It’s incredible because they are in such small spaces.
The year after, I did my own personal farming in a city, so mostly growing food in containers actually - recycled containers that I would find. And I was doing landscape work on the side.
WHAT INITIALLY BROUGHT YOU TO THE FIELDS?
5 years ago I didn’t anticipate I’d be in this field. I was really interested in public health and human services. I thought I was going to be a social worker. I was interested in psych and mental health. Through my studies I realized that the heart of the issue comes from our own systems within society that are really problematic. It started with food. It’s really sad. I was struggling with mental health and eating the right foods that were coming from the ground was incredibly vital to my own mental health. From that it sparked a spiral that I went down recognizing that it’s not just me who is struggling and it’s the culture that is struggling. The best way to get to the heart of the culture is to think and look at food systems. Where I’m at now is a mental health public health standpoint. We can change culture through agriculture. The more you kind of understand the current model of ag, there are a lot of mirrors. The current ag system with pesticides, herbicides, monocrops, degrading land and also degrading physical and mental health. I really want to tackle alternative ways and think about new ways of growing and distributing food.
WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO FARM FOR SOMEONE ELSE (NOW OR IN THE PAST?)
The lack of resources. Period. First of all, I come from a city. Access to learning is pretty difficult. I also think that there are schools for agriculture, but the cost of everything - money money is why! Access to land and access to money to buy land is pretty limited. Access to the land and the resources and to learning, it’s really been important for me to find the mentors that I have found, to work for them and learn through them.
WHAT ARE SOME ISSUES FOR FARMERS WORKING ON SOMEONE ELSE'S FARM - ISSUES THAT YOU'VE WITNESSED OR EXPERIENCED?
I’m on food stamps. I think that is almost funny that someone who has devoted their life to learning and growing food holistically needs to rely on government systems to have access to healthy food and pay my bills. It’s not just farmers who are working on other people’s farms who struggle. Farmers who own land, too - the people who I work for struggle incredibly. That is really disheartening for a young farmer trying to get into agriculture. I can barely get by and I see my mentors and role models in this field struggle.
I think that there’s an issue with succession. I just came from a farm that didn’t have any children. They are aging out, their bodies are ready to retire, quite frankly. They need to find someone. They want to find someone to take over their business. But, them as farmers are not ready to give that up. They aren’t ready to embrace changes, new ideas, new approaches to the property/land that they have stewarded their whole lives. There is also an issues of transition, passing land on. There is a disconnect between young and old farmers - land owners, who care deeply about the land. A resistance to change. And its not just the operation that I’ve just been working at. There is a lot of resistance to change in the way we steward the land that isn’t ours.
It seems like our best bet to lease land and tend it that way, but at the same time, dude you don’t want to pay rent your whole life. When are we going to be able to accumulate enough resources to buy the damn house! Leasing land is a great way to build upon your skills, knowledge experience, but where is the longevity? It doesn’t feel sustainable.
CAN YOU TELL ME THE QUALITIES OF A DREAM FARM NOT LEADING TO OWNERSHIP - THAT YOU WOULD WANT TO WORK ON?
I would really love to get a bunch of farmers and form a farmers’ coop. People would have their own specialities: some person would have their own orchard, another person is more interested in compost, another person is interested in rotating cattle, goats, sheep. I’m so against ownership of anything at the end of the day. This entire country was never mine. I know about the history of this land. I’m not out here farming because I want to get my own farm and make a dollar. I’m in it for more spiritually and community reasons. For my future, I’d love to work with other farmers and build upon all of our skills. Everyone has a stake in it.
Another issues that I’ve found is that the stakes are too high for one person - and that is kind of a scary thing. Two people, two bodies, once you reach your 50s or 60s and if you’ve been going hard your whole life, shit! Distributing the stakes or the power is the most sustainable way to keep these food systems going. That would also dismantle the succession issue with farming. Old farmers ready to pass it down but they are not willing to change ideas…if there are multiple farmers invested in one property or farm, there is more potential for evolution. Multiple ideas and brains invested compared to one person.
“I mean I’m so against ownership of anything. At the end of the day, this entire country was never mine. I know about the history of this land. I’m not out here farming because I want to get my own farm and make a dollar. I'm in it more for spiritual and community reasons.”
WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK?
I think I was born into a culture that has manipulated me to think that my life should look a certain way, have certain jobs, usually underneath a bunch of fluorescent lighting….perpetuating ideas that are violent, subtly violent and colonizing. Farming is a way of resisting that. We are all preachers of mother earth. My culture has removed me so much away from the natural systems and the natural work for me. It’s the only way to resist these systems that are essentially deteriorating my own mental, physical and spiritual health.
Farming is my own way of resisting. I’d like to think of myself and this act as radical. There is much shit that I don’t have control over in society. Understanding the natural world and working with it is a way to work with a system, rather than have a system work me or control me, you know?
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE DIFFERENCE (IF ANY) BETWEEN A FARMER AND A "FARM WORKER"/"FARM EMPLOYEE" BESIDES PROPRIETORSHIP?
I think that those words fall under capitalism. To me, when you say a farmer, that’s a career path. When you hear the word farmer, you think of someone who owns the land. A farm worker then just works for someone else. They are all terms that have been created by capitalism and ownership and privatization of business and land. I consider myself a farmer but I think that is more so as a philosophy or a way.
I don’t like the term farm worker. It makes me feel a little, I don’t know, like “the help”.
I’ll be there to be '“the help”, but I have a greater investment in learning and understanding.
DO YOU CALL YOURSELF A FARMER?
I do, yeah.
WHAT KIND OF SUPPORT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR PEOPLE WORKING ON FARMS NOT THEIR OWN?
Shoot, I don’t know, fucking money! So the last job I was just at, I was given $1000 stipend every month, provided a trailer to live in, free wifi, electricity, propane, and that was helpful. I think that being able to not have other expenses was great, but at the same time, I still needed financial support. Farmers, not just farm workers, who are not just thinking about producing, but are also thinking about soil health, are just as important as surgeons! More important.
The farm that I just came from, Gordon and Margaret, are creating a legacy. When you tend the land and know about soil health, you’re not just making a crop for this year, you’re ensuring fertility and crops for the future. It just sucks that they can barely pay their bills. I hate money and hate that I need it and I hate that amazing people who do the real work are really struggling, but it’s like I can say I need more money to the farm owners because I know they don’t have it. It’s not just the farm workers who need more money, it’s the whole system.
ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE ABOUT YOURSELF & YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FARMING? WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?
I want to reiterate how important holistic farmers are. They are so important to society and they are so disrespected. That is really heartbreaking because they are the backbone and I think with this pandemic, maybe people are starting to realize that. People are applauding western medicine and frontline workers, but I don’t know, doctors, farmers and nurses, man.
I moved to New Mexico March 1st. got to Truchas, New Mexico on March 5 or 6, 2020, a day before the entire state shut down. My experience in a rural setting was so extreme. It’s hard to even comment on it. This past year has been so crazy for everyone. I will say that the state of New Mexico is breath taking every single day. There is just so much relief looking at the wide open space coming from such an urban and populated place. It allowed me to get space I needed to reflect.
I plan to go back next year. It’s not a definite, but it’s definitely in the cards. There’s been a lot going on, a lot of issues with their operation, just as things are changing for them and their bodies and their finances. We’ll see how I feel. The first year has felt like a dream in a good way, but I think year two things will set in a little more and the rural life, the dream life might start to erode. We’ll see.
Community is a huge reason why I wanted to start farming because I care so deeply about community. I really do wonder what rural farmers’ philosophies of community are when they are so removed.
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....)
Well this past year lunch was cherished, that’s for sure. Just like a moment to lie down, sit down and rest. I love it.
There is a mandatory hour break. It was never like, you have to eat with all of these people - you’re free for the next hour to do what you want to do. This past year, physically, has been the hardest year so far. Having that hour break was cherished. I didn’t have this sense of community. I was in a really rural place and I worked with one other person other than the land owner.
I definitely looked forward to it.