GFJ Grows

We are astounded by the response that we got from last week's newsletter, in which we referenced a predicament in deciding whether a particular job submitted to us was indeed a Good Food Job (as defined by our Editorial Policy). We were wholeheartedly perplexed as to whether to approve the post or politely decline it, as we have done with other more obvious examples in the past. This time was different...there were a lot more questions, and we decided to reach out to our readers to help us answer them. You generously did that, and much more, as you can see from some of the excerpts (in italics) below.

Were we relinquishing our morals if we posted it?

I think you should refuse their advertisement and stick to your guns.

If you do not like the company, you should not do business with them. That's the beauty of being independent. Otherwise, why are you different than other job placement places? Why should people trust you?

Personally I would hope Good Food Jobs would have the integrity to stand up to an inappropriate job listing. If you had approved this position, I would have been dismayed for sure...I am often disappointed by seemingly well meaning and principled organizations that stand up for something and then pander to the uninformed critics, naysayers, and bullies hat protest against a principled stand based on sound internal policy of that particular organization.

I'm not sure what types of feedback you guys are getting, but I want to say that it takes a crapload of courage to stick to your mission in the face of potential criticism...sometimes you just have to go with your gut.

I agree that big companies should be encouraged to make progressive steps. However, I genuinely think, their true intent should be clarified before putting trust.

I commend you all for your consideration of NOT just opening the doors for them to post via your site.

Or were we being too close-minded / elitist / judgemental / exclusive if we didn't?

I think we can agree that certified organic agricultural production is a move in the right direction, that is it is a "good food job". So why exclude a job opportunity in organic ag just because the parent company is "big and bad". To feed the world while embracing environmental and social values, we need businesses of all sizes--from garage sauerkraut makers to mega-corporations--to embrace sustainable agricultural techniques.

My daytime job is for a large wine producer. When I started I found myself steering clear of any mention of sustainable because in my previous position sustainable was on the other end of the spectrum. But over time, I've realized the the sustainable or green measures my current winery puts in place are actually equally or more impactful than the smaller wineries I worked with in the past.

While I appreciate and respect your companies position in supporting small, grassroots movements, I don't believe that you are helping job seekers by limiting this post. My husband and I run a small, organic vegetable farm in VA and while I firmly believe in what I'm doing, if I were to be looking for a farm job I would like to know about this job. Farming is hard work for a small paycheck, and as former corporate employees, sometimes we think that it would be nice to farm for someone else, get paid well, and get good health benefits.

As a student at the Evergreen State College in 2006, my Ecological Agriculture class took a field trip to this farm in WA, [the same site where this job will take place]. [It] is the site of the original fruit and berry farm, from before the Cascadian brand became big business and a national brand. [It is] a real working fruit farm, with a real farm crew working hard to keep up the production and the quality of the fruit. I think you should list this position; it is a legitimate farm, and the description goes on to say how important a farm site this is because of the potential for an educational farm. Just because the economy of scale is large, and the owner is US agribusiness, does not mean what Cascadian Farm is doing is not sustainable agriculture. Furthermore, to encourage the questioning of the public as to whether their farm is sustainable or not is kind of the point of agroecology (the study of sustainable ag).

If I lived in Washington, I would absolutely apply to this job- as a 20-something with a Sustainable Agriculture degree and people/farm management experience seeking a salary and a long-term position, this posting is very appealing. The sustainable agriculture world is currently experiencing a glut of young landless farmers, and your job website is an important part of dealing with this problem - to exclude postings like this one would be a real disservice.

I feel that it's worth noting that not enough sustainable farming jobs actually pay a living salary. Bouncing from badly-paying internship to badly-paying seasonal work is a reality for many young farmers in this position, so we need more year-round positions like this particular job. If this job is controversial for being offered by a large corporation, then a good number of other Farm Manager jobs should be controversial for treating workers like second-rate migrant labor not deserving a year-round appointment.

It's a food movement, after all, not a food teleport. And fundamentalism / absolutism is very good at alienation. While the local food movement is strong and growing it is still very very small, and we need to be bringing in the vast majority of Americans who don't know where their food comes from, or don't care, or don't think to ask, or who see us as a bunch of angry hippies or elitist pricks and would rather spend their money at a big box retailer than a farmer's market because at least they're not paying to spread the liberal agenda (I say this not to make fu, but to acknowledge that these are actual opinions held by some of our neighbors). While there are battles to be fought, our enemies are way fewer than we may think. And change comes incrementally to a large system, and I think we should work for change in that light.

After poring over dozens of your emails, the solution became more clear.

I personally I think that simply raising the question to your community shows a huge amount of integrity and willingness to learn! Vetting jobs according to your own standards and integrity is part of what you do and that the real food community will get it and support you if you choose to omit postings like these.

As long as you're weighing the complexity of the issues, I think your email will continue to be a great service - that goes whether you elect to exclude such openings, to include them without note, or to include them with some sort of caveat.

Ultimately it is not about whether we do or do not post the job. It is about continually engaging in the conversation. It's about bringing up the hard points. It's about being open to different opinions and perspectives. It's about accepting that things will evolve. It's about not judging a book solely by its cover.

We are not posting the job, for now. Our decision is not based on a knee-jerk reaction about the company in question being a large multi-billion dollar corporation, nor a desire to procrastinate in hopes that everyone will forget about it and move on. We know that the position was submitted in good faith, and that there are many benefits to having a good salary, job security, and financial resources to enact change. But as long as we have more questions, we are choosing to continue asking them - to you, to the company in question, and about this subject in general.

We are submitting a list of questions to the company tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon. If you have a question that you'd like answered, let us know by Noon on Wednesday March 19th, and we will include it with our inquiries.

The fact is, we ultimately have some searching left to do about the fundamental idea of whether it is: 1) unacceptable to promote large companies making profit from practices we don't necessarily agree with to support smaller efforts that we do believe in, or 2) shortsighted to refuse those resources that will otherwise be squandered. The debate continues. We have our own opinions, but we'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

As this week's Words of Wisdom post (over there in the left sidebar) says: Storms make trees take deeper roots. So we're going deeper. While we do, we hope that you'll respect our decision to refrain from posting the position while we gather more information to make the most informed decision. And we hope that you read all sides of the argument posted above, so that your own opinions can continually evolve as we continue the conversation.

THE LATEST GFJ INSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

It's that time of the year. The snow is (still) melting, maple sugaring is kicking off the season, and signs of Spring are about to emerge. We can't help but love the energy of Spring, where there is so much potential for new growth. We, ourselves, have been whittling away in Dorothy's basement, trying to get our seeds started for the garden (off-line), getting ready to launch the updated blog design (on-line), and bringing the hard conversations to the forefront via the newsletter (both on and off-line). We thought there was no better Instagram Challenge hashtag for this month than #GFJgrows.

We want to see what you are growing - tangible or intangible. It could be related to your garden, improving your cooking skills, or observing the inevitable signs of Spring. Here's some of our latest inspiration from our adventures in seed starting.

So start tagging your Instagram photos with #GFJgrows. The entry with the most likes at 8 AM on April 8th wins the book Gathering: Memoir of a Seed Saver, and a Seed Savers Exchange Individual Membership.

Let's get growing,
Taylor & Dorothy