What do farmers think of crop mobs?
About El Dragón
Barth Anderson is chief blogger at Fair Food Fight. He has roughly 20 years experience with the natural foods industry, working as grocery stocker, produce buyer, marketer, and organic certification coordinator at various natural foods co-ops across the country.
His two novels, THE PATRON SAINT OF PLAGUES and THE MAGICIAN AND THE FOOL (Bantam) are available through Amazon.com.
many farmers checked with insurance man about having public on the farm. most farm policies do not cover the public on the farm. places like U-pick berries or apples pay a huge premium to allow the public on the property.
this may end up in a disaster for a farmer if someone gets seriously hurt and the farmer is sued. not trying to rain on the parade, i checked with my agent about crop mobs and he was like are you serious?
I’ll let John speak from the farmer’s POV, if he cares to weigh in.
As for crop mobsters, we all sign an agreement/waiver that says we have our own insurance, that we’ll use it to cover ourselves if we get hurt, and that we release the farm from all liability. On these more intense mobs, I’m adamant about having those releases signed.
Also, before we begin, I always impress upon our mobsters that we’re guests at these farms. The whole point of crop mobs is to help these families, and that if I were to get hurt, I would of course elect to use my own insurance and take care of myself and wouldn’t ask my hosts to take care of my medical bills when I volunteered my services of my own free will.
I also make sure that the farmer understands that the tasks they choose to assign us shouldn’t be dangerous or use implements that could harm anyone. The most dangerous thing that anyone did yesterday was lift a bale of hay.
First off, let me say that I’ve had the conversation with our insurance company. Invited guests are covered. “The Public” as in, “open to the public” is generally not covered. Also, paid labor, in excess of “occasional part time help” is not covered. As the owner of a large piece of real estate and a moderately successful farm business, I’m all about protecting my investment, etc.. Crop Mobs probably fall into a gray area, and it’s a good idea to think it through as the movement evolves.
In addition to agreeing wholeheartedly with Barth on the logistics of the Fair Food Fight – TC Crop Mob, I have some strong personal feelings about this whole issue. Anon is right, that a nail sticking out of a board or a random sharp peice of metal could cost the farm. If you have a dozen extended family members over to your farm for a Labor Day picnic, some kid falls off a fence, getting hurt, they could sue too. The only thing really protecting anyone in this society is the integrity of the other guy, and divine providence. As we all know, whoever has the better lawyer, more money, is likely to win the day. If we really, really thought about the complete risk of getting out of bed each morning, we probably wouldn’t. However, the answer is not paving the whole farm and paying 10x insurance premiums to “insure” you.
The answer is more crop mobs, not less. The answer is more people understanding the importance of food and farms, and more people putting their money, muscle and risk where their mouth and their heart is. We need more interactive community, not more better insurance.
At the risk of really being misunderstood here, I’ll go out on a limb. Farms and farmers and farming need to be elevated in the eyes of the public. I know it will probably never happen to a huge extent, but just take a look at the whole stupid story of a basketball player’s switching teams recently. The owner of the jilted team is complaining about the way the star left, landing him a fine from the NBA, and kids in Cleveland want to pay the owner’s fine. How ridiculous. The owner, the ball player and the NBA are all grossly overvalued financially. The fine to the owner is like a parking ticket to us, an inconvenience. Meanwhile, those with the least ability to help are helping.
Back in the real world, I get questions from folks wondering why my prices are what they are. My product is not subsidized, the NBA’s, and conventional grocery store food is. Why can’t we work for a world where farms are supported as wildly as NBA teams. Really, which is more important!
While we all need to be prudent, lets not let fear ruin a good thing. Let’s not run from the opportunity to move our culture in the very direction it needs to go because there’s some risk. Measure it, prepare for it, but don’t shy away.
that John is a very astute farmer and business person.
while his insurance underwriter is fine with it, mine wanted to write me a new policy. I think my point is each individual situation is unique and the farmer should at least consider the issue and make a call to their agent. Clearly no one wants to create a legal issue for a farmer they are trying to help.
Yep. We’re in total agreement on all points. And thanks for chiming in, anonymous. I’ll certainly double check and ask that farmers consult their insurance agents aboout crop mobs at their farms.
To be clear, we did add an extension to our policy a couple of years ago, which covers part time help and guests beyond family. Didn’t really add much cost though, around $100/yr
That was John Mesko, above
John addressed Anon’s concerns more eloquently than I could, but being in the same boat as him, I appreciate the legwork he did on the issue with his insurance agent.
Every farmer should check with his/her insurance agent before inviting a Mob to do work on the farm (and I imagine every insurance agent will endorse the liability waiver).
But there’s some trust that needs to exist too: a Mobber is going to expect that I don’t give him the most dangerous job on the farm — which I won’t. And a farmer should be able to expect that a one-day volunteer farm worker is working in the farmer’s best interest and so that, if injured, the volunteer wouldn’t come back after the farmer.
Gretchen
Sweetland Orchard