Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Will work for food: agricultural interns, apprentices, volunteers, and the agrarian question

  • Published:
Agriculture and Human Values Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Recently, growing numbers of interns, apprentices, and volunteers are being recruited to work seasonally on ecologically oriented and organic farms across the global north. To date, there has been very little research examining these emergent forms of non-waged work. In this paper, we analyze the relationships between non-waged agricultural work and the economic circumstances of small- to medium-size farms and the non-economic ambitions of farm operators. We do so through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of farmers’ responses to two surveys we conducted of farmers using non-waged workers in Ontario, Canada. We situate our analysis within debates on the agrarian question, which we contend requires an account for both the economic and non-economic dimensions of new forms of non-waged work on farms. We suggest that many ecologically oriented farm operators are struggling financially and report low gross on-farm revenues and personal incomes. We argue that in addition to relying on off-farm incomes and self-exploitation, many farms are managing to persist in a challenging economic climate through their use of intern, apprentice, and volunteer labor. However, we also suggest that the growth of non-waged work on farms is not simply being driven by economic processes but also a series of non-economic relationships focused on non-institutional farmer training, the pursuit of sustainability, and social movement building. We suggest, the “economic” and “non-economic” dimensions of internships, apprenticeships, and forms of volunteerism sit uneasily alongside of one another, generating questions about the politics, ethics, and sustainability of non-waged work and ecological farming.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In this paper, we use the term “ecologically oriented” to refer to farms that adhere to a wide range of ecological principles in their design and management of food production, and that have adopted various philosophical and practical applications of technical, generational, and experiential knowledge (e.g., agroecological, biodynamic, certified and non-certified organic, natural, permaculture, etc.).

  2. We use the term “non-waged labor” and “interns” (as well as apprentices and volunteers) interchangeably in this paper to refer to farmworkers that are not immediate family and are compensated for their labor in ways that can be described as non-conventional and quasi-legal. For example, non-waged farm workers in Canada are frequently considered interns, apprentices, and volunteers and are paid less than minimum wage. However, at times they are treated as employees insofar as contributions are made to Employment Insurance, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, and the Canadian Pension Plan. In other cases, farmers have more informal relationships with their non-waged workers, in which the legal requirements of the Employment Standards Act (in Ontario) are not met.

  3. It is possible to overstate the uniqueness of agriculture, as many small businesses have both social and environmental motives that they attempt to support through their marginally profitable business operations.

  4. This category includes accessing land through barter and work exchanges, kinship relationships and squatting on public land.

  5. Transitional organic refers to those (farm operators) who were in the process of undertaking the 3-year process of having all or part of their operations certified organic at the time of the 2011 Census of Agriculture (Statistics Canada 2011c).

  6. After the 2006 Census, Statistics Canada stopped tracking farms that reported they sold organic products but which were not necessarily certified.

  7. As discussed in our methods section, we did specifically target CSA farms in our survey recruitment process so it is not surprising that a high percentage of farms reported marketing their food through a CSA model.

  8. To note, the statistics presented here are based on self-reported incomes. We acknowledge that small businesses, and farms in particular, may underreport income for tax purposes. However, in the context of our survey there are no structural or financial incentives to underreport gross farm revenue or on-farm income. Nevertheless, for tax purposes, farmers likely channel gross farm revenues back into the farm rather than pay themselves.

  9. To note, there are several limitations to this equation. First it does not account for the number of hours worked, nor does it account for discrepancies in the amount of time that different farmers dedicate to training and education.

  10. More research is needed to explore the degree to which the labor and educational arrangements are commodified, or not, but in this article we use the term “quasi-commodified” to capture the payment for labor through a mixture of a small stipend, room and board, and farmer training. However, we also recognize that the production produced through non-waged labour is still valorized in various markets.

  11. For a list of programs see http://www.organiccouncil.ca/organics/courses and http://www.organicagcentre.ca/Courses/course_campus_credit.asp.

Abbreviations

CAS:

Community supported agriculture

NFU:

National Farmers Union

References

  • Akram-Lodhi, A., and C. Kay. 2010a. Surveying the agrarian question (part 1): Unearthing foundations, exploring diversity. The Journal of Peasant Studies 37(1): 177–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akram-Lodhi, A., and C. Kay. 2010b. Surveying the agrarian question (part 2): Unearthing foundations, exploring diversity. The Journal of Peasant Studies 37(2): 255–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altieri, M.A. 2002. Agro-ecology: The sciences of natural resource management for poor farmers in marginal environments. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 93(1–3): 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barndt, D. 2002. Tangled routes: Women, work, and globalization on the tomato trail. Aurora: Garamond Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, H. 2010. Class dynamics of agrarian change. Halifax: Fernwood.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, H. 2009. V.I. Lenin and A.V. Chayanov: Looking back, looking forward. The Journal of Peasant Studies 36(1): 55–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, H. 1979. African peasantries: A theoretical framework. The Journal of Peasant Studies 6(4): 421–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, S., and C. Getz. 2008a. Towards domestic fair trade? Farm labor, food localism, and the “family scale” farm. GeoJournal 73(1): 11–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, S., and C. Getz. 2008b. Privatizing farm worker justice: Regulating labor through voluntary certification and labeling. Geoforum 39(3): 1184–1196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buck, D., C. Getz, and J. Guthman. 1997. From farm to table: The organic vegetable commodity chain of Northern California. Sociologia Ruralis 37(1): 3–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chayanov, A.V. 1966 [1924]. The theory of the peasant economy. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

  • Cloutier, S. 2001. Working time: How do farmers juggle with it and how has it impacted their family total income. Agriculture and rural working paper series, no. 21–601–MIE (51). Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada, Agricultural Division.

  • Collins, J.L., and M. Gimenez (eds.). 1990. Work without wages: Comparative studies of domestic labor, and self-employment. New York: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deere, C. 1987. The peasantry in political economy: Trends of the 1980s. Amherst: University of Massachusetts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denning, M. 2010. Wageless life. New Left Review 66: 79–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Desmarais, A.A., and H. Wittman. 2014. Farmers, foodies, and first nations: Getting to food sovereignty in Canada. The Journal of Peasant Studies 41(6): 1153–1173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Employment and Social Development Canada. 2014. Labor market opinions—Annual statistics. Number of temporary foreign worker positions on positive labor market opinions under the agricultural occupations, by location of employment. http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/jobs/foreign_workers/lmo_statistics/annual-agriculture.shtml. (Accessed 9 June 2015).

  • Endres, A.B., and R. Armstrong. 2013. Diverging values: Community supported agriculture, volunteers, and the hegemonic legal system. Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 2(2): 43–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Endres, A.B., N.R. Johnson, and M.N. Tarr. 2010. United States food law update: Health care reform, preemption, labeling claims, and unpaid interns: The latest battles in food law. Journal of Food Law and Policy 6: 311–337.

    Google Scholar 

  • Errington, A., and R. Gasson. 1994. The increasing flexibility of the farm and horticultural workforce in England and Wales. Journal of Rural Studies 14(2): 127–141.

    Google Scholar 

  • Estabrook, B. 2011. Tomatoland: How modern industrial agriculture destroyed our most alluring fruit. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faraday, F., J. Fudge, and E. Tucker. 2012. Constitutional labor rights in Canada: Farm workers and the Fraser case. Toronto: Irwin Law.

    Google Scholar 

  • Federici, S. 2012. Revolution at point zero: Housework, reproduction, and feminist struggle. Oakland: PM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedmann, H. 1990. A paradoxical relationship between unwaged and waged labor. In Work without wages: Comparative studies of domestic labor and self-employment, ed. J.L. Collins, and M. Gimenez, 193–214. New York: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedmann, H. 1980. Household production and the national economy: Concepts for the analysis of agrarian formations. Journal of Peasant Studies 7(2): 158–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedmann, H. 1978. World market, state, and family farm: Social bases of household production in the era of wage labor. Comparative Studies in Society and History 20(4): 545–586.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galt, R. 2013. The moral economy is a double-edged sword: Explaining farmers’ earnings and self-exploitation in community-supported agriculture. Economic Geography 89(4): 341–365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, M., and M. Redclift. 1981. From peasant to proletarian: Capitalist development and agrarian transitions. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, M. 2014. Labor and the locavore. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greer, S. 2012. Community supported agriculture in Canada: CSAs discover what’s in season. Huffington Post Canada. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/06/25/community-supported-agriculture-canada_n_1624222.html. (Accessed 29 May 2015).

  • Guthman, J. 2004. Agrarian dreams. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, N. 2011. America’s new agrarians: Policy opportunities and legal innovations to support new farmers. Fordham Environmental Law Journal 22(3): 523–562.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, G.L. 1999. California and the fictions of capital. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holms, S. 2013. Fresh fruit, broken bodies: Migrant farmworkers in the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horlings, L.G., and T. Marsden. 2011. Towards the real green revolution? Exploring the conceptual dimensions of a new ecological modernization of agriculture that could “feed the world”. Global Environmental Change 21(2): 441–452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalyuzhny, J.J. 2012. Cultivating the next generation: Why farming internships should be legal. San Joaquin Agricultural Law Review 21: 131–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kautsky, K. 1988 [1899]. The agrarian question, vol. 1. Winchester, MA: Zwann Press.

  • Levitte, Y. 2010. Thinking about labor in alternative food systems. In Imagining sustainable food systems, ed. A.D. Blay-Palmer, 1–10. Surrey: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann, S.A., and J.M. Dickinson. 1978. Obstacles to the development of a capitalist agriculture. The Journal of Peasant Studies 5(4): 466–481.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marr, J. 2012a. Seven axioms farmers use to justify crappy compensation for their apprentices. In The ruminant: Pondering the best way to agriculture. https://theruminant.squarespace.com/blog/2012/02/05/seven-axioms-farmers-use-to-justify-crappy-compensation-for-their-apprentices. (Accessed 6 Aug 2014).

  • Marr, J. 2012b. The snake eats its tail: Six alumni of Canadian farm internships reflect on hosting internships themselves. In Canadian organic grower magazine. http://magazine.cog.ca/the-snake-eats-its-tail-six-alumni-of-canadian-farm-internships-reflect-on-hosting-internships-themselves. (Accessed 6 Aug 2014).

  • McIntosh, A., and S. Bonnemann. 2006. Willing workers on organic farms (WWOOF): Alternative farm stay? Journal of Sustainable Tourism 14(1): 82–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, A., and T. Campbell. 2001. Willing workers on organic farms (WWOOF): A neglected aspect of farm tourism in New Zealand. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 9(2): 111–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, M.C., and H. Mair. 2014. Organic farm volunteering as a decommodified tourist experience. Tourist Studies 15(2): 191–204.

  • Mitchell, D. 2012. They saved the crops: Labor, landscape, and the struggle over industrial farming in Bracero-era California. Athens: University of Georgia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, D. 1996. The lie of the land: Migrant workers and the California landscape. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • NFU (National Farmers Union). 2010. Losing our grip: How a corporate farmland buy-up, rising farm debt, and agribusiness financing of inputs threaten family farms and food sovereignty (or, “Serfdom 2.0”). http://www.nfu.ca/sites/www.nfu.ca/files/06-07-losing_grip.pdf. (Accessed 6 Aug 2014).

  • NFU (National Farmers Union). 2011. Farms, farmers, and agriculture in Ontario: An overview of the situation in 2011. http://www.nfu.ca/sites/www.nfu.ca/files/farm_ontario.pdf. (Accessed 6 August 2014).

  • Press, M., and E. Arnould. 2011. Legitimizing community supported agriculture through American pastoralist ideology. Journal of Consumer Culture 11(2): 168–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qualman, D. 2011. Advancing agriculture by destroying farms? The state of agriculture in Canada. In Food sovereignty in Canada: Creating just and sustainable food systems, ed. H. Wittman, A. Desmarais, and N. Wiebe, 20–42. Halifax: Fernwood.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachs, C., P. Allen, A.R. Terman, J. Hayden, and C. Hatcher. 2013. Front and back of the house: Socio-spatial inequalities in food work. Agriculture and Human Values 31(1): 3–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J. 1976. The moral economy of the peasant. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shanin, T. 1973. The nature and logic of the peasant economy 1: A generalization. The Journal of Peasant Studies 1(1): 63–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Statistics Canada. 2011a. Table 004–0005—Census of agriculture, farms classified by size of farm, Canada and provinces, every 5 years (number), CANSIM (database). Ottawa, Ontario: Statistics Canada.

  • Statistics Canada. 2011b. Table 004–0006—Census of agriculture, farms classified by total gross farm receipts at 2010 constant dollars, Canada and provinces, every 5 years (number), CANSIM (database). Ottawa, Ontario: Statistics Canada.

  • Statistics Canada. 2011c. Farm and farm operator data: Provincial trends, Ontario. Ottawa, Ontario: Statistics Canada. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/95-640-x/2012002/prov/35-eng.htm. (Accessed 6 Aug 2014).

  • Statistics Canada. 2011d. Table 004–0001—Census of agriculture, number and area of farms and farmland area by tenure, Canada and provinces, every 5 years. CANSIM (database). Ottawa, Ontario: Statistics Canada.

  • Statistics Canada. 2011e. Snapshot of Canadian agriculture. Ottawa, Ontario: Statistics Canada. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/95-640-x/2012002/01-eng.htm. (Accessed 6 Aug 2014).

  • Statistics Canada. 2011f. Table 002–0038—Average total income of farm operators by farm type, incorporated and unincorporated sectors, annual (dollars). CANSIM database. Ottawa, Ontario: Statistics Canada.

  • Statistics Canada. 2011g. Table 002–0005—Farm operating expenses and depreciation charges, annual (dollars × 1,000). CANSIM database. Ottawa, Ontario: Statistics Canada.

  • Statistics Canada. 2011h. National household survey. Catalogue number 99-012-X2011034. Industry—North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) for the employed labor force aged 15 years and over, in private households of Canada, provinces, territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations. Ottawa, Ontario: Statistics Canada.

  • Statistics Canada. 2014. Low income lines. Income research paper series. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75f0002m/75f0002m2014003-eng.pdf. (Accessed 24 Mar 2015).

  • Theodore, N., and J. Peck. 2002. The temporary staffing industry: Growth imperatives and limits to contingency. Economic Geography 78(4): 463–493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thorner, D. 1986. Chayanov’s concept of the peasant economy. In A.V. Chayanov on the theory of peasant economy, xi–xxiii. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.

  • Van der Ploeg, J.D. 2013. Peasants and the art of farming: A Chayanovian manifesto. Winnipeg: Fernwood.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Vosko, L. 2006. Precarious employment: Understanding labor market insecurity in Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weis, T. 2007. The global food economy: The battle for the future of farming. Black Point: Fernwood.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wells, M.J. 1996. Strawberry fields: Politics, class, and work in California agriculture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiebe, N. 2012. Crisis in the food system: The farm crisis. In Critical perspectives in food studies, ed. M. Koc, J. Sumner, and A. Winson, 155–170. Don Mills: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamamoto, D., and A.K. Engelsted. 2014. World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) in the United States: Locations and motivations of volunteer tourism host farms. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 22(6): 964–982.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yanko, P. 2013. B.C. case throws apprenticeships in doubt. In The Western producer. http://www.producer.com/daily/b-c-case-throws-organic-apprenticeships-in-doubt. (Accessed 6 Aug 2014).

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. In addition, we gratefully acknowledge support from the organizations that supported the distribution of our survey and the farmers and farm operators that completed the survey. Heidi Tripp’s work as research assistant was also invaluable in preparing this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Geography, University of Toronto, Scarborough, Social Sciences Building, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada

    Michael Ekers

  2. Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Ave. West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3C5, Canada

    Charles Z. Levkoe

  3. Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street, Room 5047, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G3, Canada

    Samuel Walker & Bryan Dale

Authors
  1. Michael Ekers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Charles Z. Levkoe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Samuel Walker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Bryan Dale
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charles Z. Levkoe.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ekers, M., Levkoe, C.Z., Walker, S. et al. Will work for food: agricultural interns, apprentices, volunteers, and the agrarian question. Agric Hum Values 33, 705–720 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9660-5

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9660-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation