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With unemployment in Windsor County at 2.5 percent, Orange County at 2.4 percent, and in Grafton and Sullivan counties at 2.1 percent in October — the most recent data available — the pool of possible employees is small for most employers, including farmers.
The seasonality of the work can make it particularly difficult for farmers to find employees, they said.
“Trying to get hay help is ridiculous,” said Nancy LaRowe, the coordinator of Valley Food and Farm, a program of the White River Junction-based nonprofit Vital Communities. LaRowe also runs Hogwash Farm a pasture-based livestock operation in Norwich.
A 2014 Vital Communities survey of 122 Upper Valley farmers found that 58 percent sought business growth, while 28 percent said labor was the primary obstacle to growth. Thirteen percent said labor was a hurdle to reaching current production goals.
To identify specific labor challenges — such as finding people to work during the busy growing season, alleviating fall burnout and addressing high turnover — and brainstorm solutions, Valley Food and Farm hosted two problem-solving sessions for area farmers last week, one in Newport and the other in White River Junction.
The meetings are part of a larger Valley Food and Farm project, funded through a $14,930 grant from the USDA’s Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, to help farms find and retain employees. The project’s goals include creating an online classified listing for area farmers and collecting and sharing peer-to-peer anecdotes about how Upper Valley farms attract, manage and pay workers.
The farmers who gathered in White River Junction said offering food raised on the farm to employees as part of their compensation and offering instruction in how on-farm decisions are made help with worker retention.
Kate Duesterberg, manager of Cedar Circle Farm in East Thetford, said that she offers employees a chance to ask questions during a staff lunch once a month during the growing season.
Some employees are there to learn, but “don’t always have access to people who make decisions,” she said.
Suzanne Long, co-owner of Luna Bleu Farm in South Royalton, said she tries to provide learning opportunities to employees who have signed on to work as apprentices, but over the years she has found that it’s important to be “clear to ourselves about what we’re able to provide.”
At the beginning of a worker’s term of employment, Long said she tries to “talk about where people are coming from” and their goals.
Similarly, Pooh Sprague, of Edgewater Farm in Plainfield, said he asks employees who choose to return for another season why they are returning and what interests them.
On the other hand, sometimes he’s “looking for people not to get an education, but looking for people to pick strawberries,” he said.
Edgewater, a family-owned fruit and vegetable farm in Plainfield, participates in the H-2A program, which allows seasonal workers from other countries to work on U.S. farms legally. The group of Jamaicans who come to work at Edgewater help to anchor his farm crew, which includes six full-time employees and 28 to 33 people in the peak season. The Jamaican workers help insulate the farm from fluctuations caused when young local employees leave to go on vacations with their families, for example, Sprague said.
Though some of the migrant workers are better than others, they generally “covet the job,” which makes them motivated to work hard and can mean they set the pace for other workers, Sprague said.
It is, however, a burdensome program, he said. Enrolling in H-2A paints a “large target on your back for the (U.S.) Department of Labor,” Sprague said. The department takes the attitude that “we’re stealing jobs from Americans,” he said. So farms participating in the program can be subject to sometimes lengthy audits.
The program also requires employers to provide housing for workers, which can be burdensome. But, even some of those not participating in H-2A offer housing as a perk for employees.
Norah Lake, of Sweetland Farm in Norwich, said she knew when she and her husband, Chris Polashenski, started their farm in 2012, that they wanted a “work/life balance.” It’s a balance she said many new farmers seek, she said. They’re totally committed to farming, but they’re also lifelong learners, who want to be able to go on vacations with their families, she said.
It’s been her goal to have several people living on the farm who are committed to it and are capable of running it, she said. To that end, and because the Upper Valley is an expensive place to live, Sweetland has living quarters for farm workers.
Lake, Sprague, Long and Danielle Allen, of Root 5 Farm in Fairlee, are participating in the Valley Food and Farm project as collaborators, helping to gather farm labor information. LaRowe asked farmers to fill out an anonymous survey providing financial information such as how much they paid for field labor last year.
Rates of pay were not discussed during the meeting, but Sweetland Farm offered a starting wage of $11 to $15 per hour, depending on experience, for full-time assistant farmers this year, according to the farm website. On-farm housing was also available. The position ran from April through October.
Luna Bleu offered room and board and $300-$400 per week for full-time assistant managers and $225 per week for apprentices, according to its website. Employees there started work sometime between February and May and wrapped up the season in late November.
During the session, some questions remained unanswered, such as: How to manage transportation in a rural area and “How to pay a living wage without charging $20 for a bunch of chard?”
In addition, farmers said they’d like to find employees with specialized skills such as carpenters, mechanics or accountants, who would also take on other tasks on the farms.
“I would really love to hire a bean counter who is also willing to pick beans,” Sprague said.
At the end of the meeting, Lake said she felt encouraged.
“It’s not nearly as bad as I thought it was,” she said.
But Sprague and Long struck notes of caution. “It’s not bad, but it’s a huge challenge,” Sprague said.
“It changes from year to year,” which makes it hard to plan, Long said. Long has had good luck finding apprentices, who live at the farm for the summer, through online databases, such as the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont’s apprentice and farm worker directory, she said. But she’s had a harder time finding people locally, she said.
As part of this project, Valley Food and Farm will be working to put together a searchable database of farm-related jobs for the Upper Valley, which they expect to launch in 2017, according to a written description of the project provided at the meeting.
Valley Food and Farm’s resources for farmers can be found online at vitalcommunities.org/valleyfoodfarm/farmers.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
