Laboring to Learn and Learning to Labor: experiences Of Farm Interns On Sustainable Farms
Open Access
- Author:
- Wood, Kathleen Faye
- Graduate Program:
- Rural Sociology
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- October 31, 2013
- Committee Members:
- Carolyn Elizabeth Sachs, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
- Keywords:
- Internships
agricultural labor practices
sustainable agriculture
vocational training - Abstract:
- Farm internships offer inexperienced women and men an opportunity to acquire farm skills and learn sustainable farm practices by laboring with a farmer. Little however, is known about how farm internships meet these objectives and therefore a better understanding is needed of how this practice functions as both a learning and labor process, the meaning assigned to the experience by farm interns. This thesis explores themes associated with the structure of farm internships and the value of the experience from the perspective of women and men who interned on farms in Pennsylvania and the Northeast region of the US. The three exchanges primary to the structure of farm internships investigated in this study were the labor, learning and social exchanges. It specifically addresses the ways in which social exchanges organized the farm internship and the meaning interns assigned to the experience. The value of farm internships was assessed by focusing on the motivations and perceived benefits assigned to the practice by farm interns. The demographic characteristics of farm interns are presented, which is one of the first attempts to profile this population. In addition, this thesis explored whether farm internships establish socially responsible practices on sustainable farms. Both qualitative and quantitate data were utilized to collect data for the purposes of studying farm internships. An understanding of agrarian political economy guided the theoretical approach to how the farm internship is structured; Weber’s conceptualization of substantive rationality is used to investigate the subjective perspective of interns’ participation in the structure. Results indicated that training during farm internships focuses on the intern’s ability to learn from their labor, with minimal instruction provided by farm mentors. Farm tasks were substituted as a learning tool according to a farm’s labor demands during the farm internship. Consequently, farm interns received the most instruction on topics that involved manual labor on farms. Farm interns were compensated during the internship with food and a small stipend. Farms in rural areas provided housing as remuneration; the conditions of such housing arrangements varied widely among participants. Resources identified by participants as instrumental in allowing them to take a salary sacrifice were a college education and support from family members. The informal nature of farm internships makes the social context of such arrangements important. Three different types of relationships between farm interns and farmers are identified that influence the structure and experience of farm internships. This typology includes the farm intern treated as a member of the family, the farm intern learning beside a farm manager, and a farmer who supervises farm interns in more managerial capacity. The meaning that participants assign to their experiences focused on social and individual values unrelated to capital returns. Working and learning on farms provided participants the opportunity to live out social values promoted by the local food movement and dealing with social justices issues such as equitable food access. Individual values that motivated farm interns to participate in an internship included exploring farming as a profession and becoming more aware of how food is grown on sustainable farms. Individual benefits that farm interns valued dealt with healthy eating, working in nature, and using one’s body to accomplish work tasks. Nevertheless, farm interns recognized that their function as cheap labor force, justified by alternative motives and benefits, was an inequitable exchange in traditional renderings of the labor process. Implications of these findings for responsible and just treatment of farm interns and laborers on sustainable farms are advanced.