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Fields of Farmers: Interning, Mentoring, Partnering, Germinating, by Joel Salatin
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America’s average farmer is sixty years old. When young people can’t get in, old people can’t get out. Approaching a watershed moment, our culture desperately needs a generational transfer of millions of farm acres facing abandonment, development, or amalgamation into ever-larger holdings. Based on his decades of experience with interns and multigenerational partnerships at Polyface Farm, farmer and author Joel Salatin digs deep into the problems and solutions surrounding this land- and knowledge-transfer crisis. This book empowers aspiring young farmers, midlife farmers, and nonfarming landlords to build regenerative, profitable agricultural enterprises.
- Sales Rank: #126975 in Books
- Published on: 2013-09-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.03" h x 1.01" w x 6.05" l, 1.14 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 304 pages
About the Author
Joel Salatin and his family own and operate Polyface Farm, arguably the nation's most famous farm since it was profiled in Michael Pollan's New York Times bestseller, The Omnivore's Dilemma and two subsequent documentaries, Food, Inc., and Fresh. An accomplished author and public speaker, Salatin has authored seven books. Recognition for his ecological and local-based farming advocacy includes an honorary doctorate, the Heinz Award, and many leadership awards.
Most helpful customer reviews
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
Interning and Mentoring the Polyface Farms Way: Practical, Informative, Inspiring and very Hopeful
By Jacqui Denomme
I've now read almost all of Joel Salatin's books and was not disappointed in this one. Depending upon the book you will find varying proportions of hands-on, practical, do-it-yourself ideas, tips and instructions interspersed with visionary inspiration, historically and biologically -rooted philosophy (he's a big fan of Wendell Berry). He can wax eloquent about soil microbiology AND about the important relationship between the farmer and his community. Personally, I find this combination irresistible. I tend more towards being a 'big idea' person rather than a 'hands-on-doer' but I find I am able to read Joel's descriptions of, say mixing feed for chickens or setting up an electric fence quite painlessly and even enjoyably.
This particular book (the first of his I have taken the time to sit down and review) was about 1-quarter 'background and inspiration' to 3-quarters 'hands-on' although to artificially separate out the two aspects of writing is much too simplistic. The 'how-to' and 'reasons behind' are woven seamlessly together throughout the book.
Although my interest in internships and mentors is somewhat theoretical at this point (I'm neither a farmer nor a prospective intern), having 2 sons in their early twenties currently learning their own trades makes even more personal my hopes for happily employed young people everywhere. I am concerned about the high level of unemployment for young people and the loss of those manufacturing jobs that might have employed young men not otherwise aiming for academia in years past. Having a life-long passionate attraction for the 'old-fashioned' mixed farm which used to form the nexus of local communities, it makes my heart sing whenever I encounter Joel Salatin's talks or writings.
So, on to the content of the book itself. Basically, the title says it all. "Fields of Farmers" is Joel's dream and vision for the future of food production: holistic, sustainable, healthy, enjoyable and profitable. The four following signifiers-interning, mentoring, partnering, germinating, he covers in great detail within the covers of this book.
For example: if you are a young person thinking that you would like to have an intern experience (Polyface Farm currently has both four-month Intern programs and 1-year Apprentice programs) he offers concrete questions to ask yourself about what you expect to get out of the program, what the mentor expects from the interns and what that might look like at his farm. He takes the reader from the 'whys' of having interns, to the application process start-to-finish, to housing, food, expectations, activities, personal qualities and what would make an intern a good 'fit' not only at his farm but really at any interning situation.
If you are a prospective 'mentor' he makes it very clear that you have to be aware of what interning is NOT. It is NOT a good way to get 'cheap labour' neither from the interns NOR the mentor's perspective. He outlines clearly all the potential costs involved and aspects to take into consideration. For example-housing interns, feeding them, assigning tasks (that first have to be taught from the ground up) the need for allowing extra time for the interns to properly learn tasks that the mentor might think that they should already know how to perform, the importance of cultivating a quality relationship with the intern that inspires good-will, trust and facilitates the sharing and transfer of valuable skills and knowledge. All of this interchange should inspire possibilities on both ends. The mentor, in Joel's view should help make that intern WANT to continue on farming, not scare them away.
The first time I encountered Joel Salatin was in the DVD Fresh (or Food, Inc, I can't recall which one). I rewound the specific segment he appeared in 3 or 4 times, made my boyfriend watch it at least twice, then youtube'd him so I could rewatch different versions of the same concept: pulling the eggmobile behind the pasturing cows 3 or 4 days later so that the hens could simultaneously spread the cow patties and eat the fly larvae. This provided: spreading of the manure to better benefit the cow-chomped pasture, pest-control, a free source of yummy protein and vegetable matter for the hens, AND the byproduct of free-range hen eggs. This holistic, layered synergy was so simple, so easy it made my very soul ring out with excitement and from that moment on, I knew I wanted to know more about 'this'! I've seen the footage of industrial, factory farms and of course was put off by that but to discover that there were folks 'out there' coming up with models of food production that were healthy, sustainable, enjoyable, profitable and just really felt 'harmonious' was a real thrill for me and lead me to read all of Joel's books. Having said that, Joel makes it very clear that the internship model he describes can be used on any type of farm. Valuable farming skills can be learned by skilled and experienced farmers of any stripe: building fences, driving tractors, husbanding livestock, etc.
This last book continues to inspire me in new ways. His segments on 'partnering and germinating' speak so well to his own vision, which is to not only have his own farm-model be successful for him and his family, but to freely and widely share those aspects of that model that he has been able to make work with as many people who are interested in learning as possible. His models around 'stacking' enterprises with young entrepreneurs and 'food clusters' take the whole 'mixed farm' and 'local farming communities' to a next and even greater level than I believe has ever been experienced. I had been thinking before discovering Joel's work that the only models left after industrial farming were maintained by Old Order Mennonite or Amish communities and although there is so much to be admired there, I didn't think that those models could necessarily be adopted broadly across the spectrum.
Joel's philosophy is deeply grounded in a set of spiritual,philosophical, and ethical values that can't really be pigeon-holed. He IS a 'creationist' which I can't really say that I am, but I have no problem with his being one. He is NOT a fanatic, but rather has thoughtfully expressed ideals which are clearly working harmoniously with libertarian politics and his deep Christianity. He takes about 2 pages in the book to discuss the roles of goals and values and how that affects intern choice. Basically-'you don't have to be or think the same as me and my family, but but please don't attack or undermine our beliefs and values. By the same token, we will be respectful of yours'. I personally respect this open-minded quality of having and following deeply held and confidently articulated values while allowing others the freedom to have their own without either trying to convince or convert the other.
What the end of this book outlines (and what alone would be worth the price of purchase), is a potential model (which he calls 'food clusters') that can be adopted by any community of like-minded people who would like to participate in the 'local food' movement at any level. From production to processing, to marketing, to purchase and consumption, he makes it all seem really doable in an inspiring yet practical way without pulling punches about the various pitfalls and mistakes that can occur while developing the model from the ground up.
If your primary interest in this title is the internship/mentoring aspect, this is a great read, well-thought out and crafted and a wealth of both practical and inspirational content and will be of great use whether you are a prospective intern or mentor.
If you are a die-hard fan of Joel Salatin already, there is so much new material in this book you will be inspired anew even if you've already read all of his other books.
If you are new to Joel Salatin and not specifically interested in internships, you might want to check out some of his video material or start out with an earlier book. If your chief interest is getting down to business in farming, I would start out with 'You Can Farm" or perhaps one of the more specific books "Pasture Poultry Profits" or "Salad Bar Beef". If your interest is more 'local food' in general his other books would be great to check out. Try "Folks This Ain't Normal" or 'The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer". Once you start reading, if his themes resonate with you, you might not be able to stop!
27 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
Profound insights but not necessarily relevant to other farms
By Oregon Farm Mama
I feel bad once again giving Salatin a three-star review for a book that I very much enjoyed. But after chewing on this one for a few days, I feel like there is a fairly major disconnect between the amazing intern experience offered at Polyface and what is possible for other farms such as ours.
But, first, the good: Salatin is writing from a place of deep experience and thoughtfulness. The most useful aspect of the book as a whole was reading about his spiritual journey toward understanding and accepting young interns as the inexperienced, eager, ignorant creatures that they are. As a farmer who has employed young people, I really related to this experience -- the biggest mistakes we have made over the years is expecting unrealistic things from our employees (especially because in the early years, we were also pretty young! But the divide between us and our employees was still vast!).
Now, the big challenge of the book for me. As I said in my first paragraph, his internship program sounds amazing. We would love to replicate something like it on our farm and become mentors to young people. However, as he fully admits, many aspects of the Polyface program are simply NOT LEGAL -- notably the on-farm housing and the below minimum wage pay. I admire Salatin and his family for being willing to take on those constant risks, but where we farm in Oregon farms with similar programs have been made the target of legal complaints by disgruntled former interns. The resulting fines, legal fees, and emotional stress have been hugely burdensome. Meanwhile the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries has made it clear that they will seek out and target internship programs. Overall, in these parts, farmers are becoming increasingly wary of paying anything less than minimum wage, which in 2014 is **$9.10/hour** (and right now Obama is talking about wanting to increase that wage to $10.10 across the entire nation!).
For our farm, that wage adds up to a significant sum of our labor budget. In another industry, minimum wage might be about right for a starting individual, but in our region a typical experienced agricultural professional might be paid around $12-14/hour. So these young new farmer types end up making just a few dollars less but contribute MUCH less to the farm.
Salatin is defensive throughout the book about claims that his farm is boosted by "cheap intern labor." He goes on to point out how much his interns cost the farm in terms of lost tools and mistakes. Guess what, Salatin? That's true with our young employees too -- young orchard trees mowed over, tools lost, implements run over with the tractor, buried mainline risers run over, garlic pulled up by poor cultivating, etc etc etc. We've had so many moments when we've lost significant amounts of time and money because of employee errors. Not to mention that emotional toll that Salatin talks about too. But we're paying these people a lot of money for their honest mistakes.
Now my husband and I go to hire a new person for the farm, we have to weigh the question of offering an opportunity to a young potential future farmer (i.e. young American "intern") or looking for a more experienced agricultural professional (i.e. hispanic worker). We were once young interns ourselves (on a farm willing to pay us below minimum wage to offer us the learning experience we were seeking), so in my heart of hearts I WANT to do what Salatin is proposing -- but it feels like too big of a risk for our farm. There are some gray legal areas we're willing to work in, but this feels like it would put our farm on really shaky ground given the current climate around internships in Oregon. I'd say this is one of The Big Conundrums for farmers in Oregon right now -- giving young people real learning/working opportunities and still trying to keep our farms profitable and professional. The most profitable and vibrant farms I know generally employ hispanic workers almost exclusively, and these farmers have DEEP respect for the work ethic and skills of their employees. Other farms continually try to set up internship programs and find themselves continually frustrated by the constraints of the situation. They just can't afford for their farm to weather all those expensive mistakes and such while paying the legal wages.
I'm sure that this review will receive comments from people crying "sour grapes!" That's fine. I'm speaking from first-hand experience, just like Salatin. And, you can be sure that my husband and I are going to continue seriously meditating on what he offers in this book. Perhaps in future years labor laws will make room for legal internships, or we will decide to take on the risks of illegal housing and pay. But for now, it's not something we feel responsible doing, and I couldn't recommend that plan to another farmer either.
So, I do recommend reading this book if you are a farmer. It'd be even more useful for a potential farm intern (good luck finding an "internship" though!). But, take it all with a grain of salt. Be clear about how many risks you are comfortably taking as a farm. It's a big question, not to be taken lightly.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
A Book Every Wannabe Farmer and Farmer Needs to Read
By Iwannafarm
I’ve been waiting to read this book for some time now and after reading it (in three days time) it ended up exceeding my high expectations. Anyone who has followed this blog or peeked at my book review section knows I’m a fan of Joel Salatin. It was his first book “You Can Farm” which was the inspiration that set me on this journey. After writing his first book, fifteen years later with numerous inspirational books in-between Joel has written another book that equals the first one on the scales of practical inspiration. I’m certainly not saying the others aren’t great books, I love them all, but this book spoke to me in a powerful way much like the first one did. I will admit different books speak to us at different times when we are in need of what they supply, but aside from that I think this book has some ground breaking ideas for the future design of the world foodscape. The complete title of the book is “Fields of Farmers: Interning, Mentoring, Partnering, Germinating” and it lives up to the title in every respect.
What’s in the Book?
The book is broken into five sections, which include 17 chapters, and 320 pages. Section one, What’s the Big Deal? is more of an introduction section which covers the need for new farmers and the idea of what a healthy and productive classroom or learning environment is and should be. Section two, Especially for Mentors is as the title suggests a section written for the farmers who will be teaching the aspiring farmers ( the interns and apprentices), and it covers wages, mindset, skills, and investing in people. Section 3, Especially for Interns is written for interns and covers the cost it takes for a mentor to host an intern along with the spirit or attitude an intern should have to justify that cost among other things. Section 4, How it Works talks about the vetting and selecting of interns, how the internship program works at Joel’s farm – Polyface, housing, leveraging labor, and what to do when a mentor/intern relationship isn’t working. The final section Future Farming Success addresses land access, creating new farmers, food clusters or networking, and stacking or adding multiple enterprises to the farming business.
Highlights
It’s tough to choose highlights from this book, as I feel the entire thing is a highlight, but I’ll try to pick a few of the ripest cherries, at least to my taste. One of the big takeaways I got was was in examining the relationship between the mentor and intern and looking at value. The value the mentor gives to the intern is quite easy to see, but the value the intern exchanges for the mentor’s knowledge is hard to recognize, and sometimes it’s simply absent. Being someone who is looking to be an intern in the near future this section was very useful to help me gain the proper perspective and mindset when it comes to thinking about the value I can add for my future mentors. The fact is the intern costs the farmer money for at least the first two months of any internship. There are broken tools, there is time wasted in what Joel refers to as “work slippage” – this is when the intern does a task incorrectly and the mentor must do it again correctly with more time spent on repeated instruction. Joel says it’s not until the 3rd or 4th month that the intern is able to begin adding value to the operation. All of this is very natural of course and part of the learning process, and above all else it’s critical for the intern to have a positive attitude and always be looking to learn, improve, and share positive energy, but it’s crucial for the intern to be aware of the fact that they are causing the operation to lose money and not take it for granted. Joel also makes a point that no farm should ever take on an intern in hopes of getting cheap labor, and that a farm should be fully operational and profitable before even thinking about taking on an intern. The bottom line is farms are businesses and survive and grow from profit. It’s profit that allows them to mentor the aspiring farmer by providing housing, food, time, and absorbing the damage they may cause to property or tools due to their inexperience. So the question the intern should be asking him or herself is: “How can I help this operation be more profitable?” Here is a telling passage from the book on this topic:
Interns must be as careful about watching costs and stopping slippage as the mentor. Unless and until that personal ownership occurs, the intern works along with a misplaced notion of entitlement and importance. When the interns figure out how to make their mentors money, guess what? They’ve just figured out how to be financially successful themselves. The past is a prologue. The attention to frugality and financial stewardship in the internship will carry over into an intern’s future endeavors. The internship is an incubator for habit development. Habits are not just procedural how-to’s.
This is a critical point. This is really the ultimate lesson for any wannabe farmer. If one plans on running their own operation it involves much more than labor, it involves efficient labor, along with a multitude of other things that can only be learned from working with the mentor. If the intern continually keeps the profit reality in the back of their mind during the internship they will emerge from the program with a much greater chance of being able to run a successful operation of their own some day, and the mentor will have been rewarded for his efforts and be able to continue to work with new interns in the future.
Another highlight was in the last section that described what Polyface does and how it’s developed over the years. The Salatins have been hosting interns and apprentices for 20 years now and the family of farmers that’s grown from those relationships is amazing. Every intern who has graduated from their intern program has found land to work. It was never the plan to grow and produce for as many customers as Polyface does today, it developed over time naturally from demand for their products and the Salatin’s desire to give young farmers the opportunity to get a start in farming without all of the beginning trappings like going into debt. I’ve said this more than once in other book reviews, but it’s very relevant here so I’ll say it again. The average farmer in America and most of the world is 60 years old. In this book Joel mentions the endless letters that come to him from older farmers asking him to send a young farmer to them to work their land in partnership. The demand is never ending and growing day by day. The reality for the young farmer is it’s nearly impossible to buy farm land today with inflated land prices all over the world, and unfortunately too many people take that as a barrier to farming and give up, or never try. The fact is you don’t have to own land to be a farmer. Joel even references Greg Judy’s book “No Risk Ranching” which I reviewed last month for a great example of how young farmers can access land through leases. Over the years Polyface has leased numerous farms in the surrounding area to manage. Guess who manages these farms? Polyface interns and apprentices who have graduated from the Polyface program. What an opportunity for a young farmer just getting started. They need zero capital. They don’t need to worry about marketing as everything is marketed through Polyface. An agreement is made including how the young farmer can make profits and he or she is essentially given a farm to operate at zero cost. You might think that this is just a way for Polyface to expand and make more money. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only does Polyface give the young farmer this golden opportunity to get started but they allow and encourage the farmer to farm and create their own separate enterprises – enterprises that compete with the Polyface label and surely take Polyface customers away from their customer pool. What company hires an employee, puts them in a high management position, then encourages them to start a rival company that would surely take away from their customer base? Not a company that’s sole interest is profit, that’s for sure. Talk about giving back in incalculable ways.
Final Thoughts
There is so much more to say about this book, but I’m trying to keep my book reviews down to a more digestible 1,000-1,500 words. The idea about Food Clusters at the end of the book which I only touched the surface on when describing the Polyface network and partnerships is I believe the future of local food as I alluded to at the beginning of this review. The future farmers of America and the rest of the world who are going to lead the way healing the land and growing the healthiest food possible will not be land owners. They will be farmers with a working knowledge of how to be productive and profitable. The beauty of this is a natural byproduct of being productive and profitable is the healing of the land. The two go hand in hand. Perhaps a few generations later these farmers will be able to take a majority stake in ownership of the land, I think that likely will be the case as economic bubbles created by poor government policy pop and deflate over the coming decades. And when that does happen there will be a legion of capable farmers who will have made a profit and accumulated savings waiting to take the land back into healing hands as owners. I look forward to being a part of the new wave that reshapes the way the we think about food and farming, and anybody who wants to join me or anyone who simply wants to have a clearer picture of how the future foodscape will look I couldn’t endorse reading this book anymore than I already have.
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