DANNI ELIAS
Rhode Island
Danni has been professionally farming on farms not their own since 2013.
Danni was the inspiration for our worker zine: Guide to Working on Farms. Danni has also written for Good Food Jobs about NOF’s stance in support of living wages for farmworkers.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY DOING? (WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING, ETC)
Right now I am not working and sort of making plans for the summer, which include maybe doing a part-time harvesting on a farm and maybe driving around for a compost company and doing part time landscaping for a friend of mine. I’ll still be in the dirt and sort of all over the place.
I’m on unemployment.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN FARMING?
I started dipping my toes in the water when I was in high school doing some in my hometown in Pennsylvania. There was an agri-tourism farm, a Pennsylvania Dutch farm. I was volunteering with them back in 2008 until 2011 sporadically and not consistently.
Professionally, I started farming in 2013 and that was in Rhode Island.
WHAT INITIALLY BROUGHT YOU TO THE FIELDS?
Growing up, my dad was in landscaping and we always had a big garden when we were kids. I always really loved spending time with him out there. Some of my earliest childhood memories are with my dad showing me what weeds were and me wanting to go play instead. I was living in Rhode Island and I thought that I wanted to work in food service and be a chef. I apprenticed under some chefs here, and I realized tha I don’t like being screamed at by men with coke addictions.
I was working in a kitchen early in the spring and the crocuses were just starting to come up. I’d walk to work and that was the best part of my day, stopping and seeing these flowers growing a quarter of an inch.
Funnily enough, I found a farm job on Craig’s List and and now that farm owner is basically my adopted sibling and my mentor. I worked for him in 2013 and then in 2014 I was sort of on the farm part time and traveling around.
I worked for him again in 2015 thru 2016.
WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO FARM FOR SOMEONE ELSE (NOW OR IN THE PAST?)
A lot of it is for education purposes and also I really love farming and I love being in the dirt. There was a long time where my end goal was to have my own farm and it still maybe is, but I don’t know, I’m up in the air about it. It’s a hard question. For the past 5-6 years in the off season I’ve been doing childcare work and really enjoy that and have been doing gardening programming with kids. I love working with children. The idea of incorporating those two things has become a little more important. Production doesn’t seem like the way to go, but working for a school for me does not feel good either. I’m in the process of figuring out if it’s possible to do that in a way that is freelance and where I have a little more control and am not totally beholden to other people.
I like the freedom of not really having to answer to a supervisor. Farm ownership is financially not within reach at this moment and maybe ever.
It is something that I’m interested in, but also up in the air.
WHAT ARE SOME ISSUES FOR FARMERS WORKING ON SOMEONE ELSE'S FARM - ISSUES THAT YOU'VE WITNESSED OR EXPERIENCED?
The biggest one for me is comes down to pay. I don’t know that I’ve met anyone who is working for a farmer making a living wage.
Something that I’ve seen that tends to be frustrating is this attitude that comes up a lot in a lot of small business ownership and is not particular to farming: It’s this idea of, we’re all a family, we’re all a team. The individual and the individual’s needs are sacrificed for the good of the farm. I have had difficult relationships with farmers because I am not super willing to put up with that. I have pretty strict work boundaries, which makes you a little unpopular with certain farm owners.
Things like, We have to work until the harvest is done, so all of you need to stay in the field until 8pm. I’m thinking, Last year you hired 7 people, this year you decided to only hire 6 and now you’re seeing that this doesn’t work and not hiring another person. You are putting that burden on your staff. I don’t own this business and I don’t need to ruin my body and let go of all other aspects of my life to allow your business succeed.
Coming from a background in food service, there is a tendency to ignore food safety standards which is really frustrating to me.
Having a safe work place is not always the case. Even having people trained in tractor safety, that is something that I’ve found to be lacking. Depending on the farm, there has been a lack of safety equipment, like eye glasses, something like spreading Diatomaceous Earth and not having a mask to wear, stuff like that.
I've had to drive people to the emergency room from getting a shard of metal in their eye, having wind blow shavings back in their face and needing to go to the ER. A lot of farmers expect you to work through the pain and that kind of stuff.
CAN YOU TELL ME THE QUALITIES OF A DREAM FARM NOT LEADING TO OWNERSHIP - THAT YOU WOULD WANT TO WORK ON?
I think that it’s sort of funny, it’s hard to imagine that from the one I worked on for a few years in Rhode Island. There was a strong sort of attitude and sense of community care there, and that was something that was built in. It was also intentional from the owner, too.
I think getting paid a living wage for starters.
I don’t necessarily need to be in a position of creative control, but working for someone who is willing to listen to you and interested and values your opinions. Who is willing to take into account your needs as an employee.
For me I’ve worked on bigger farms, like 8, 10, 13 acres and I don’t like it. I don’t like things to be mechanized. I hate water wheel transplanters. I get physically sick on the back of them and I feel like I can work just as fast on my hands and knees transplanting. I feel a sense of separation from the land when things are mechanized. I would rather just work on a farm that is small enough that you don't need that kind of equipment.
“A lot of people have this assumption that because you are an organic farmer, you are this righteous pure of heart person, wholly good, which is not true. Farmers are just as capable of causing harm as anyone else.”
WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK?
I have no idea. I find a real sense of fulfillment working with plants. One of the things I love the most about farming, I’ve done a lot of CSA farming, it’s that sense of community and I think that’s the biggest thing for me. I love being outside. I feel like a sense of peace or quiet in my brain when I’m doing manual labor, and farming is my favorite manual labor. Anything like that where I am really pushing my body and engaged with my body. I have ADHD and things are very rapidly spinning, doing manual labor is helpful for that. My body feels good and my brain feels good when I’ve put in a long day of work. I love to be dirty and I love vegetables.
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE DIFFERENCE (IF ANY) BETWEEN A FARMER AND A "FARM WORKER"/"FARM EMPLOYEE" BESIDES PROPRIETORSHIP?
I don’t see a difference in them. I see myself as a farmer. People not in the industry, when I tell them I’m a farmer, they will ask, “Where’s your farm” and ask questions like I am the owner. I have to clarify. I still think of myself as a farmer, and if they asked if I was a farm worker, I would also identify as that.
That is the labor that I do so I do engage in it. There is a dichotomy and I’m not really interested in that. I’m pivotal in the process of this even if I don’t have ownership. That doesn’t make me or anybody else less than.
WHAT KIND OF SUPPORT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR PEOPLE WORKING ON FARMS NOT THEIR OWN?
I did an interview at one farm and at the beginning of the season, they offered all of their employees $200 -$300 gear stipend, for things like rain gear, a pocket knife, good boots. They had an expectation that you’re going to spend this money responsibility.
I remember the first year I was farming, I was getting $250 stipend/week. For both me and my fellow interns, it took us a couple of months to go out and get rain gear, we just couldn’t afford it. That same person starts his interns at $11 - $12/hour now, but back then when he was on two acres and that’s what he was paying. So having that kind of gear stipend support would be helpful.Also really basic stuff, like a bathroom. Potable water. A place eat lunch in the shade, that maybe even has a microwave, or walls especially when it’s snowing in New England. It feels really basic but often times isn’t available.
Safety equipment.
I think a lot in terms of internships, as well. That’s how I went into farming. I’ve worked with a decent amount of high schoolers. I volunteered with 4H, met young people who want to go into organic farming. They ask me, How do you find a farm, what do you look for? The thing that I always tell people, and the high schoolers especially is, the first thing is to ask for references. You want to talk to previous employees. That’s a huge red flag if you can’t. You need that kind of transparency. The other one is that if they are paying you less than a living wage and saying that is coming back to you in the form of education, you should be given a syllabus. The first year that I interned out at Big Train, it was not just field work that we were doing, there was a lot of education that went into that. It was not an actual classroom, but it was the farmer’s kitchen. We had a lot of soil science lectures. If it’s an internship specifically, you need actual educational support, not just this idea of you’ll learn it by doing. If you’re not being paid appropriately for your labor and they are claiming to be educating you, it needs to be more than just holding a hoe.
I worked on a couple farms in Montana and there was this place called Ag Workers Health and Services. It was a health care clinic and it was completely free. You could pay if you wanted to, but you were never expected to. I got all of my basic health care there for free. I had dental work and was able to see a therapist there. Everyone who worked there was wonderful. That is the biggest thing I miss about Montana.
ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE ABOUT YOURSELF & YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FARMING? WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?
I have a lot of anger at some farmers that I’ve worked for.
One of the farms that I worked on in Montana, they had been in business for 8 years. It was just under 10 acres and I fell out of the back of a pickup truck and really severely sprained my ankle. I had to quit and move back to Pennsylvania. They had no workers comp, which is legally required in Montana. They had been paying me a stipend, and I was supposed to be paid $8 -$10k at the end of the season. When I fell, I felt like I needed to be reimbursed for that time that I worked and they did not want to do that. They said no because I didn’t finish the season.
They eventually paid me after I got a friend involved. Montana has a lot of specific laws on the books about farm labor and working conditions. We wrote down all of their violations and my friend called them and said, Pay Danni or I will call Department of Labor.
They were paying a stipend and had housing, which was a trailer with no running water or electricity, and were wanting to charge me rent for living on the property.
It keeps me up at night that a lot of people have this assumption that because you are an organic farmer, you are this righteous pure of heart person, wholly good, which is not true. Farmers are just as capable of causing harm as anyone else.
I worked for a couple who were very transphobic even though they thought of themselves as really progressive. They have a strong internet presence and are really revered in western Montana. They are rats. They are horrible rat people. It’s so deeply frustrating to see people praise them. That is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night.
I’m a person who processes things externally. It does deeply bother me. I saw them - we went to some local food summit type of event and the wife was talking about how important it was for them to pay a living wage. I’m sorry but you pay your workers $9/hr and charge them $300/month for company housing. And it’s in a place where people couldn't afford to live within 40 miles.
They go to Baja for a month and a half every winter. I was a manager and they were paying me $12/hr.
So yeah, definitely asking for references is a big one. I think there are a lot of red flags that are small, but they build up.
A big one now is, I’ve been out for 5 years as non-binary. It took me a while to get to a point where I’m really comfortable telling employers that and grilling them about it.
The first year I worked on a different farm after working for my friend , when somebody called him for a reference and misgendered me, he firmly corrected them.
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....)
It depends on the crew and the job. I’ve definitely worked on farms where I couldn’t wait to get away and go take lunch and use that as an opportunity to be by myself. I am definitely a lunch person. I need a lunch and I would prefer it to be at least an hour.
I’ve worked on farms where I did feel pressured by the farmer to not take much of a lunch break. I think the thing that I really appreciated at my friend’s farm in Rhode Island is that the owner, John, I don’t know how he does it, he is so good at the timing of everything. We never, in the almost 4 years working there, were on the property past 6. We started at 6 and stopped at 6. He knew how long every task would take us, and we were also finished at 6. It is an under-appreciated skill - time management in your head.
Something that I also really appreciated working at the farm in Rhode Island is that we had a two hour lunch break. We would do a siesta. When I first started, I didn’t get it, then I got it. I really value that. I have a hard time eating and then going directly back in the field. I’ve worked on farms where there is no real lunch break or a really small one and you sort of felt like the farmer was looking over your shoulder and pressuring you to get back to work faster. I have a body and I want to take care of it. Meeting my own physical needs is pretty pivotal.
