ISA BERGER
WASHINGTON, DC / Maryland
Isa just finished up their second season on a diversified vegetable farm in Maryland, and will stay on for a third season next year.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY DOING? (WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING, ETC)
This past season I worked on two different farms, both fairly small sustainable growing practices in the upper Marlboro area of Maryland. It was my second season at one of the farms and my first season at the other, part time at both. I worked a market for one farm and harvest and field work day, and a field work day and harvest/CSA day at the other farm.
Over the course of the season, I ended up leaving one of the farms. The other farm has a winter CSA that I’ll be having limited number of hours through.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN FARMING?
This was my second season.
WHAT INITIALLY BROUGHT YOU TO THE FIELDS?
My housemate/platonic life partner was working on a farm and I was having a bit of an existential life crisis. I was working in science. I really didn’t like my job. I decided to quit and knew I could dog walk to figure stuff out. It was not bringing me fulfillment in any way, but had felt easy to access. My friend said they were hiring a part time position at the farm and I thought I might as well try it, and yeah was immediately in love with it from the first time I was there.
My dad is really into gardening and when I was growing up helping him in the garden was something I didn’t necessarily look forward to. It was more of a chore and I took for granted having access to fresh food all the time. I didn’t like the working part of it.
When I came back to it many years later, I realized that I do know some things about this that I didn’t appreciate it before.
WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO FARM FOR SOMEONE ELSE (NOW OR IN THE PAST?)
I have so much to learn. I constantly have questions and am looking to the people with more experience than me that I work with. I appreciate working with people who have been doing this longer than me who can share stuff.
I am also feeling stuff about buying and owning land as a white person. I feel unsure about ever owning a farm because of that.
I feel committed to farming for the future that I can foresee. I don’t definitely want to say this is my forever path. I haven’t stayed with any one job in my life for more than two years. This third season of farming, it’s the first time I’m doing something for three years. Just because I’ve loved it so far doesn’t mean I know for sure I always will.
WHAT ARE SOME ISSUES FOR FARMERS WORKING ON SOMEONE ELSE'S FARM - ISSUES THAT YOU'VE WITNESSED OR EXPERIENCED?
I feel like I’m really lucky at the farm where I still work at. There’s really a lot of intention to share power, and there’s a lot of effort to facilitate communication structure that everyone can participate in. There are a lot of check-ins. I feel very lucky to have that particular job.
The job that I left was a lot harder, especially hard with contrast to the other farm where I was working. My biggest challenge there was that the farmer was extremely sure about the way she wanted things done and was not interested in worker input. She cared about me as a person, but was paying me to do what she wanted me to do, not to make suggestions. It was really hard for me and not the best way for me to do something. My opinion wasn’t valued.
For example, her being really particular about the way a piece of row cover got folded. I did it really quickly and she came and saw it, thought it was too messy and made me unroll it and we folded it together with each fold the same size, exactly how she wanted it.
CAN YOU TELL ME THE QUALITIES OF A DREAM FARM NOT LEADING TO OWNERSHIP - THAT YOU WOULD WANT TO WORK ON?
I feel like small is definitely one thing, I mean under 10 acres. Not a huge team of people and a fairly small market/CSA distribution style. Opportunities for areas of my own input or management or responsibility taken on and also definitely shared values and a commitment to getting food to people who might not otherwise be able to access it. Another thing that would make it feel like a dream is actually getting fairly compensated for my work and being able to take time off and not made to feel like that is a huge burden on the farm.
This year, I did not have a reason to take off work because of the pandemic, working was the reason I had to leave my house and I was happy to go to work everyday. Taking time off probably would have been possible, but I didn’t really pursue it. I was intentional this year. I wanted to be part-time knowing that with that amount of removal from the farm, I probably could have taken time off and it would have been okay. Also I knew I wasn’t able to take on management or greater responsibilities because I wasn’t there as much.
“I notice how the artist part of me is really concerned with making things aesthetically pleasing, thinking about how things look, taking time and attention. That part is turned off when I’m farming. It doesn’t matter how it looks, it matters how efficiently and quickly I can work.”
WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK?
The biggest thing is having a connection to land. Working outside everyday is the greatest thing. I feel like a bonus is that it’s doing something that feels like it’s nourishing to other people. When I dog walked, I also got to work outside everyday, what that lacked for me is a broader sense for me that this is contributing something. It’s very clear when I’m farming what I’m contributing to my community and that is very satisfying.
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE DIFFERENCE (IF ANY) BETWEEN A FARMER AND A "FARM WORKER"/"FARM EMPLOYEE" BESIDES PROPRIETORSHIP?
I often make a distinction. Farmer is the one that owns the farm. The workers are the ones that work for them. I don't necessarily agree, but I do it to differentiate who I’m talking about.
DO YOU CALL YOURSELF A FARMER? WHY OR WHY NOT.
Yeah, and the others I work with are also farmers.
If I was talking to someone outside the farm community describing my work , I saw I’m a farmer. If I were talking to another person who worked on a farm or owned a farm, I’d call myself a farm worker. I think it feels presumptuous to call myself a farmer when I’m around people who have been farming longer than I have or have their own farm. I want to make a distinction that that’s not exactly where I am and also to be kind of like naming my place within the actual food system of the DC/Maryland area.
WHAT KIND OF SUPPORT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR PEOPLE WORKING ON FARMS NOT THEIR OWN?
The farmers that I work for, both of them, are in a studying group with a bunch of other area farmers where they exchange stories and advice. I wish I had something like that that was for workers. It does seem super valuable from just a community perspective. I feel like another thing that I’ve thought of in a smaller picture way is in DC, we have a lot of markets that are managed by non-profits. They have huge budgets and everyone gets paid a lot more than farmers get paid. They should be doing more of the heavy lifting of getting customers to market in a way that I don’t necessarily feel always happens. It just feels like, what is the value of this non-profit if you’re not actually providing more direct support to farmers?
Definitely not having to pay DC rent. The farm where I have been and am going to go back to, there isn’t an option to have any worker housing because the farmer rents that land and her landlord does not want additional tenants on it. My house is hoping to move closer to that farm and hopefully find cheaper rent out there. Being able to live on the farm where I worked would be amazing.
Part time or full time next season? I think full-time. In my ideal world I’d have a 30 hour work week instead of 45 hour work week. That is a little more than I really want to work, but I am really excited about having management areas next year and if I have to work those hours to manage areas, then I will.
ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE ABOUT YOURSELF & YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FARMING? WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?
Outside of farming, I’m also an artist. Something I think about a lot is how those parts of myself could be more intertwined, if one of them has to be more central to my life. One of my greatest struggles is that the off season is the perfect time to do a bunch of big art projects, but I find I’m most inspired when I’ve spent the whole day outside and have all these images in my head, but then I’m so exhausted.
I notice how the artist part of me is really concerned with making things aesthetically pleasing, thinking about how things look, taking time and attention. That part is turned off when I’m farming. It doesn’t matter how it looks, it matters how efficiently and quickly I can work.
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 can’t imagine not eating lunch during a farm day, I think I would actually pass out. Yes, I am definitely a big fan of lunch. Last year the farmer used to make farm lunch on field work days, which was the most amazing thing. We haven’t done that this year because of COVID, but still, lunch is one of my favorite parts of the day. I really like my team, so I guess if I didn't I would feel different. It feels really nice when we’ve been working really hard to sit together and hang out and talk about food.
This season, we brought our own lunches and always sat on the farmer’s porch. We didn’t all sit at the same table. We all sat on chairs spaced far apart.
