How to become organic farmer's assistant?

Question

I would like to work at an organic farm

Answer 1

www.attra.org is a clearinghouse of info for the movement

Answer 2

You will want to become an apprentice on an organic farm than. Organizations such as the Ohio ecological food and farming association (http://www.oeffa.org) have listings of farms looking for interns/apprentices. http://www.localharvest.org has a forum that has farms looking for help.

http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/new_farm has a classified section that has listings of farms looking for help

http://www.organicvolunteers.org/wwoof/w... is all about matching up volunteers and others with farms that need work.

Answer 3

My husband and I are small farmers on a permaculture farm.  We do not use the word "organic."  The Government now owns that word.  If we want to use the word "organic," we have to pay the Government to come and inpsect us.  We do not believe we should have to pay to have the Government come inspect our farm.

Here is a link to Polyface Farms.  My husband and I admire Joel Salatin, his family, and his farm tremendously.  They embody everything that is "right" in farming.  They have apprenticeships.  In my personal opinion, they are the ultimate place to seek out an apprenticeship.  Like my husband and I, Polyface Farms also do not believe in paying the Government to attain a label that states "organic."

Also like us, Polyface Farms believes in purchasing close to home.  That means they buy food for their chickens and turkeys that is locally produced and not shipped thousands of miles.  It may, or may not be organic.

If you want a farm that produces only crops, and does not also have livestock, then you must search out such a farm on your own.  In my personal opinion a farm is not truely organic if it does not also produce the livestock, which produces the manure to fertilize the crops.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years