Why I am considering working on a farm
Greetings from California!
That's right, just to keep you on your toes, I'm writing this blog post from the Bay Area. Just two weeks ago, I left New York City to suss a few things out here on my native West Coast. With a friend in Santa Monica and one in San Francisco, I feel like a lucky girl to be able to get back out here to see if there's a future here for me.
My bffl Katie and I had some of the best raw meals in Santa Monica that a girl could ask for, including at this spot, Euphoria Loves RAWvolution.
I moved to New York to pursue a career in food justice with an internship at Slow Food USA. That internship has since ended, so I'm evaluating my next step. Sustainable food jobs are aplenty in New York, but I have had a hard time calling that bustling city home in the last six months. I found it difficult to live a simple, balanced life there. My inner rural girl was roaring for some peace and quiet. A place where people smile back at me without thinking I'm hitting on them, or worse yet, a creeper.
Now more than ever, I feel like I crave a deeper understanding of where food comes from. Between talking to farmers directly when answering the general line at Slow Food and being inspired by a few of my colleagues there having growing experience, both had that direct understanding of where food comes from--the work it takes to bring if from farm-to-table. Not having that experience makes me feel somewhat phony. How can I advocate that people have a better relationship with their food, to know where it comes from and what it takes to get it to them if I'm not willing to do the same? So, I'm currently looking into opportunities where I can have a more intimate relationship with food. I want to learn how to grow it. I want to understand in a direct way the work it takes for me to eat it.
Why?
The huge pay, obviously! OK, I kid. As of right now, I see myself taking the growing experience I’m hoping to obtain this year into a career in nutrition and outreach. After requiring any necessary certifications, I’d like to bridge the gap between food justice and children, ideally to overcome the obesity epidemic. I would love to be apart of a school curriculum, something like Edible Schoolyard is doing, where food education is taught to children in the classroom. More personally, and further into the future, when I have a family, I’d also like to have a true homestead where I grow all of my family’s produce.
Additionally, I think there’s a paradigm shift toward how hard physical labor is perceived these days. Anymore, there’s such an emphasis placed on education and schooling that I think many, my former self included, feel like working on a farm, along with many physically demanding jobs, were only an option for people who didn’t want an education. We were taught that if you get an education, then you could pursue a mentally demanding job instead of a physically demanding one. So, with the industrialization and globalization of farming, in addition to misconceptions of education vs. farming, the value of quality produce and the work it takes to bring it from farm-to-table is lost. However, I know I'm not alone in seeing the value of farm work. In a wonderful article, "Why Are Young, Educated Americans Going Back to The Farm?" by Nelson Harvey, a young gal sums up how I feel as well:
"When you have [a liberal arts] education, you get to a point where you realize wait, I need to have a more basic fundamental education about being human. Food, water, shelter...these things are important," she said.
So, who knows whether I'm meant to work on a sustainable vegetable farm for a full growing season, or if I'm a better fit volunteering with community gardens here in the Bay Area. Whatever is meant to be will be!
