Area farm internships are available

Want to intern on a farm or want to host an intern?
The Agriculture Collaborative of the Mid-Region Council of Governments will connect farmers with interns and provides other resources for those interested in farm internships. Contact the collaborative at 247-1750.
Check out attra.org, a Web site sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that provides a listing of internships across the nation.

By Rivkela Brodsky
Journal Staff Writer
Daniel LeBoeuf was working as a mechanical engineer in Baton Rouge, La., until he was laid off in November.
Instead of finding another office job, he traded in his cubicle for 5 acres of farm land in the North Valley as an intern in March.
“I always wanted to farm,” he told the Journal. “I figured now’s a good time.”
Shauna Pearson was trying to land a job with a nonprofit in California at the beginning of the year. She’s interested in sustainable urban agriculture, but she had no hands-on experience with food production.
Now LeBoeuf and Pearson are among eight interns Los Poblanos Organics is hosting this summer — and they love it.
“Dan and I are starry-eyed,” Pearson said.
Farms across the state are in need of laborers, said Ann Simon, economic development planner and coordinator of the Agriculture Collaborative at the Mid-Region Council of Governments.
The council started connecting farmers and interns a few years ago after getting “constant inquiries from community members without laborers.” Hosts are required to provide housing and meals.
Los Poblanos does get labor out of their interns — but the farm offers a little more than others.
“A lot of other internships are mostly labor,” Pearson said. But, she said Los Poblanos covers “a lot of facets of farming.”
Interns are at the field at 7 a.m. most mornings, harvesting until 11 a.m., when they move to the wash room and clean produce for another four to five hours. They are put to work seeding, transplanting, fertilizing and “don’t forget weeding,” LeBoeuf said.
“They kind of leave everything up to us except for ordering and planting,” he said. “They leave a lot of responsibility to us.”
But the farm also offers classroom instruction and invites interns to all farming and food activities held at Los Poblanos.
On Tuesdays, interns take classes on the business aspect of farming and are assigned projects. They learn how an organic farm gets certified, how to put in an irrigation system and how to run a community-supported agriculture program, or CSA. Los Poblanos provides organic produce every week to members of the program.
Interns are provided with housing and a weekly box of produce from the farm. They also get a small stipend to cover other costs.
Simon said internships are either seasonal or year-round, depending on the farm operation. Farms with greenhouses can host interns year-round. Los Poblanos has a greenhouse and does keep a few interns through the winter.
Monte Skarsgard, owner of Los Poblanos Organics, said the farm has been hosting interns since 2003. Skarsgard got his start as a farmer while interning in Santa Cruz, Calif., and Seattle after looking into landscaping as a career.
He said there has been a return to farming and increasing respect for the agriculture industry.
“The respect was beaten out of it for so many years,” he said. “It’s coming back around again.”
Simon said there has also been more interest in farming in recent years, especially from the college-aged crowd, she said.
“It’s the alternative to being confined in an office,” said Simon. “The office isn’t for everyone. It’s not easy, but not completely backbreaking.”
She said interns come from all over, and the council helps connect them to the 1,000 to 1,500 active growers in the four-county region the council represents — Bernalillo, Torrance, Sandoval and Valencia.
Even so, Simon said there is a shortage of farmers in New Mexico, and by helping connect farmers and interns, the council is hoping interns will eventually farm on their own.
“We hope it encourages career-ready farmers to get into the field — no pun intended,” she said.