Making ends meet off the farm

Any farmer will tell you: it takes more than just a green thumb to run a farm. The skills required to succeed in agriculture extend beyond sowing seeds and harvesting. They must understand tractor maintenance and marketing, irrigation and bookkeeping. But a recent survey of North Bay farmers revealed an even more surprising array of oftentimes necessary skills: bartending, journalism, non-profit communications, realty, software engineering and more.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the majority of America’s farmers today work an additional off farm job to make ends meet. Sometimes several jobs.
Damon Hill of Sebastopol is one exception. After getting laid off from the electronics industry, Hill started Min Hee Hill Gardens, a three-acre certified organic vegetable farm. How does he do it without a second job? “I put in about 10 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week,” says Hill. “And even more on market days and on nights before a market.” In addition, Hill’s wife, Min-Hee works full time as an electronics technician in Rohnert Park. But when that job is done for the day, she heads back to the farm and works many more hours alongside her partner before throwing in the towel.
Diversifying incomes is nothing new. And many farmers will advise against putting all your eggs in one basket. But the prevalence of off-farm work has changed since grandpa would take the occasional gig at the orchard down the road. In 1929, only one in 16 farmers reported working more than 200 days off the farm. Twenty years later, one in six farmers reported that much off-farm work. By 1997, that ratio was one in three. Today that accounts for most farmers.
During that time, technology has enabled larger and larger yields. But typically that gain is only possible with much larger inputs: bigger tractors, more chemicals, and a streamlined distribution system. As the food industry consolidates into just a handful of multi-billion dollar corporations that control nearly every link along the supply chain, family farms get squeezed.
“It’s hard to compete with that,” says Cal Vanoni, who farms specialty vegetables as part of his family’s 1,800-acre ranch in Geyserville. But despite owning the land, the whole Vanoni family still relies on outside income, especially after the drought forced them to cull their heard from over 100 cattle just a few years ago to less than two dozen today. Vanoni’s parents train horses on the side, his brother works for the sheriff’s department, his niece works at a coffee shop in town, and Cal recently picked up a full-time job in pest control.
But economic constraints aren’t the only reason farmers moonlight. Ariana Reguzzoni of Chica Bloom Farms in Petaluma works part-time at a non-profit that supports her fellow farmers in addition to freelance writing. She admits that seeing full-time farmers work 80-hour weeks contributed to her decision to diversify incomes. But she also didn’t want to give up journalism, the career she began before pursuing a second education in sustainable agriculture. “I really enjoy writing,” she says, “and it gives me the opportunity to switch things up. I don’t have to sit at a desk all day. But I can take a break from the field too.” Even with a new baby, Reguzzoni feels she’s found a good balance in life. Still, the economic realities weigh on her. “People don’t understand the true cost of food. There’s so much hard work and practice and long days and endless preparation that goes into every bag of groceries. Land prices are just so high, especially here in Sonoma County. And it’s not just the little organic guys, either. Even the mid-size farms struggle to get by.”
So why do they do it? Damon Hill’s answer is simple: “We love it.” But can labors of love sustain a truly viable agricultural economy here in Sonoma County? Or better yet, should they have to?
There’s a cliché in Los Angeles that every waitress, bartender and barista has either headshots or a screenplay tucked optimistically into their apron. But what does it mean when those who feed us are expected to live on par with starry-eyed silver screen contenders?
Evan Wiig is the executive director of the Farmers Guild. www.farmersguild.org.