Farm internships should be expanded

Editorial

The Washington Legislature this session could consider expanding a small-farm internship pilot program that expired Dec. 31.

Unpaid internships historically were an accepted point of entry into any number of professions and vocations. They had been especially popular in more recent times among people interested in the local food movement. Many would-be farmers accepted unpaid posts on a local farm in exchange for the opportunity to learn from established operators.

The novice interns got real hands-on experience and left the farms more knowledgeable, and either more determined to make a go of agriculture or committed to try something else. The grower got an extra set of hands, admittedly inexperienced, to take up some of the load and none of the revenue.

It was a pretty good system. It was also illegal.

In most instances, adults aren't free to offer their labor to a commercial enterprise for anything less than minimum wage, no matter what other tangible benefits change hands. While the practice had been ignored by various state labor departments, cash-strapped states have more recently stepped up their enforcement in an attempt to collect worker's compensation and other payroll taxes. Growers whose only intention was to educate interns have instead been treated to an expensive lesson in labor law.

In 2010 the Washington Legislature approved a pilot program that would let small growers, those with revenues under $250,000, in Skagit and San Juan counties take on unpaid interns as long as they provided workers' compensation coverage and offered a curriculum aimed at teaching interns to farm.

Six farms employed interns under the program. It expired last month, and a coalition of small growers wants the Legislature to extend the program, and expand it across the state.

"Farm apprenticeships are as old as agriculture. New farmers learn from old farmers through observation and application," said Sarita Schaffer, who manages Viva Farms, an incubator farm near Mount Vernon, Wash. "There's no better way to learn."

We agree. The Legislature should extend and expand the program. In fact, we would like the program's revenue limitations to be increased so that interns so inclined could learn from established, large-scale farmers.

We laud the effort to raise up and educate a new crop of farmers who want to produce for the local market. Many established small-scale producers have a lot experience they could pass along, but not the extra cash to pay minimum wage for the privilege. The same could be said about many large-scale farmers, whose revenues are high but are offset by greater expenses.

The world needs all kinds of farmers. Some young people see opportunity in the local market, others want to work in production agriculture. Those who aspire to farm for a living, and the producers willing to teach them, should be free to reach a mutually beneficial arrangements as long as there is a legitimate curriculum in place.

There is no better way to learn.