Going West to Toil: On the Value of Farm Labor

When he was interviewed for the Green Iowa Americorps newsletter, my buddy Shawn described his future plans as “going east to toil.” That was part of his dry, sardonic humor. If you asked him to explain, he probably would have muttered something about capitalism's exploitation of the worker, how “toiling” has replaced having a fulfilling career. Despite that, I took a liking to that word--”toil.” In my time in as an Americorps member, I had developed quite an appreciation for a hard day’s labor, particularly the feeling of relief and relaxation that is earned after a satisfyingly difficult day. “Toiling” represented to me this romantic idea of working hard and struggling in the dirt. So when it was my turn to be interviewed, I announced that I would be “going west to toil.”

I intended to begin my toiling on an organic farm. Back in the fall of 2016, I looked into WWOOF-ing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), and was loosely planning on going to Puerto Rico to work on a project with a friend, and also to farm. When I told Kamyar Enshayan, the director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Education, about my plans, he was elated. He told me that after college, he had worked on an organic farm in Maine. It was a powerful, transformational experience for him that had implications for the rest of his life. Obviously, I was stoked to have that kind of experience in my own life. But as it happened, I never got the chance to work on an organic farm in Puerto Rico, or elsewhere, until now.

For the past couple weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of being employed on Sage Farms in Hawi, Hawaii. It’s a 6 acre, family owned and operated farm that grows organic produce for the farmer’s market, and nearby health-food and grocery stores. I’ve picked beans, beets, carrots, kale, arugula, chard, and coconuts. I’ve rinsed and bagged produce, sending it directly to grocery store shelves. I spent three hours weeding one gosh darn row of beets. I cursed the god that created purslane (a prolific weed) and praised the name of the guy that invented the salvation of one’s back muscles--the humble hoe. It’s kind of scary to get the chance to do something you’ve always dreamed about. There’s that fear this you’ll be disappointed, that you’ve built these castles in the sky and reality is going to bring them crashing to the earth. That was the case for me at least, but my fears have proved to be unfounded. Working the land is everything I hoped it would be and more.

Planting Pineapples on the Farm.

It was a long time coming. After all, I’ve learned about the practices of sustainable agriculture since high school. I’ve had a small, often neglected and weed-ridden, garden at home. I managed 6 larger, but still sometimes neglected and weed-ridden, plots at the community garden in Cedar Falls. I’ve preached to people, and had lessons with kids on connecting them to their sources of food, reminding them that apples and oranges grow on trees, not grocery store shelves. But until these past few weeks, I had never farmed. Not once. I’ve never spent any real time on a farm, never harvested a significant amount of food. I felt kind of hypocritical. It was something I was drawn to, since my early days playing with little plastic cows and sheep as a kid, something that I knew I wanted to do as an adult, but had never gotten the chance to.

A day's beet harvest.

There’s been a lot of famous farmer-philosophers. Wendell Berry and Scott Nearing come first to my mind. I can see why. Working the land has much to teach us, and also provides a lot of quiet, peaceful time to think, and to reflect on the lessons--the value of which, to me, cannot be understated. One of my earliest lessons was patience. When you think about all there is to do on a farm, it’s easy to become overwhelmed, but it you just take it one day at a time--sometimes feeling like you’re just spinning your wheels and not accomplishing anything at all-- and by the end of the week, you’re surprised by how much you’ve achieved. In “The Good Life,” Scott Nearing talks about converting a swamp on his land into a pond. Him and his wife, Helen, took “14 or 15 thousand wheelbarrow loads of material out of the pond” over the course of 23 years in order to convert it. 14 or 15 thousand loads! By hand!

I’ve begun to see life a lot like farming. It’s quite intimidating to think about where I am and where I want to be. The gulf between my current self and my best, highest, most unique, generative self, sometimes seems to big to fathom. But the farm has taught me to keep my head down, keep working at it, do a little bit every single day, and enjoy the process.

I’m excited to continue toiling on the farm this summer and becoming more of who I already am.

#Farming #Hawi #Hawaii #SustainableLiving #Philosophy