We also use apprentices or interns--typically recent college grads--who
live and work on the farm. The advantage, aside from the fact that they are
presumably motivated to learn something about agriculture and food
marketing, is that they're available in the spring and fall, not just the
summer.
But we're contemplating contract (not illegal) workers, after the
experience of friends in Maryland who were declared a migrant work camp
because of the presence of their summer apprentices. After learning what
regulatory hoops they would have to jump through to keep their college
workforce, these farmers decided just to bag it. One less farm in Maryland,
one less supplier of local produce to direct markets, one less place for
urbanites to get exposed to farming.
These apprentices were Americans who were *were* willing to work the long
hours for the low pay that farming offers. Too bad others won't get that
chance. Too bad, too, that the jobs won't be there for Mexicans, either.
Cass Peterson
www.flickerville.com
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail