FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Not Our Farm (NOF) is a non-profit farmworker storytelling project that strives to celebrate and share the stories of non-owning workers on farms. We aim to increase visibility around the challenges and abuses that happen on farms, regardless of the size, location, or reputation. NOF is building power among farmworkers by cultivating a virtual place of community in which farmworkers share their stories and skills, create resources, and form relationships with each other.

Farmworkers can get involved with Not Our Farm by being interviewed for our farmworker interview series, joining our free events for farmworkers, and pitching ideas for what you would love to see NOF offer. Everyone can be involved with Not Our Farm by signing up for our newsletter, downloading or ordering printings of our resources, and donating to our organization.

Our efforts impact workers across the country by countering the isolation many feel on farms, raising awareness about and naming the abuse workers experience, and uplifting workers’ ideas about how we can create safe and joyful farming futures. The majority of the workers that NOF serves work on small farms ranging from 0.25 acre to 10-acre farms, spanning from rural to urban areas, and for-profit to non-profit structures. Small scale farms are often used as an example of what farm work could be or as a solution to the exploitation and harm happening in industrial or large scale farming. Not Our Farm is here to say that small-scale farms are also part of the problem. They also commit harm and exploit workers. Many of the farms are not subject to FDA rules and regulations regarding food safety, which would ensure that there is access to clean and safe bathrooms, handwashing stations, and break areas to eat. In addition, due to the small nature of these businesses, many of the farms are also exempt from OSHA safe employment standards, so workers are regularly in very hazardous, unsafe situations at their places of work. NOF seeks to serve this population of workers who are often not safeguarded by any federal regulations, who haven’t had spaces or organizations supporting their unique farmworker needs, and who are often unsafe in farming operations based on the identities that they hold as BIPOC, Queer or Trans.

The farmworkers who are impacted by and benefit from our project are typically interns, apprentices, farm managers, crew members, and farm employees who have farmed on operations from one year up to fifteen years. They do not own farm businesses or own land. They are majority U.S. citizens, college educated with English as their first language, and primarily holding identities of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Queer and Trans (BIPOCQT). Many in the Not Our Farm community are career farmworkers, and others are hoping to gain skills in agriculture to eventually start their own farm collectives or cooperatives.

We recognize that “farmworker” is a politicized term and status that is often used to represent migrant workers, immigrant workers, H2A workers, and Spanish first workers. NOF intentionally uses “farmworker” to express solidarity with the above groups and to bring attention to the fact that harm & abuse is happening to farmworkers regardless of the size, growing practices, or certifications of a farm, and regardless of the background of the workers a farm employs. We also use “farmworker” because “employee” implies safeguards that don’t exist for agricultural workers, due to federal exemptions and the racist foundations of agriculture in the United States.

The name ‘Not Our Farm’ is an adaptation of ‘not my farm!’, which is a phrase our founder heard many fellow farmworkers recite on farms they were working on usually regarding a farm practice or plan that was typically a poor decision made by the farm owner that the workers then had to go along with. The phrase encompasses both the power dynamics at play (as farmworkers, it’s not our farm so even if we have a better method, we don’t necessarily have the say) and the disillusionment felt by many farmworkers, who often hold more skill and knowledge than our bosses, yet they are calling the shots and dictating our work.

We prioritize working with farmworkers and organizations/groups/collectives who are farmworker-run or work explicitly with farmworkers. Though we sometimes have resources and events available to farm owners and consumers, NOF is devoted to creating community with, for, and by farmworkers.

You can support Not Our Farm by making a donation. Many of our resources are free, and some have the option of a sliding scale donation. You can also support Not Our Farm by sharing the work we do with your communities.