The curious case of ecological farm interns: on the populism and political economy of agro-ecological farm work

This article examines how farm interns, as a new group of non-waged agricultural workers, have come to support marginally or non-profitable agro-ecological farms in Ontario, Canada. Are farm interns potential agents of social change alongside farmers or are they being recruited onto farms because of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of peasant studies 2019-01, Vol.46 (1), p.21-43
Main Author: Ekers, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
agrarian question
agro-ecology
Environmental aspects
Farm internships
Farmers
Farms
Farmworkers
Insecure
Negotiation
political ecology
Political economy
Populism
Rural communities
Social change
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Summary:This article examines how farm interns, as a new group of non-waged agricultural workers, have come to support marginally or non-profitable agro-ecological farms in Ontario, Canada. Are farm interns potential agents of social change alongside farmers or are they being recruited onto farms because of the precarious economic situation of their agro-ecological farm hosts? I engage with this question through drawing on debates in agrarian studies arguing that farm interns should be understood as a contemporary manifestation and negotiation of the agrarian question that re-works a number of historical agrarian trends.
ISSN:0306-6150
1743-9361
DOI:10.1080/03066150.2018.1512487