ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Want your farm to be a better employer and have more confidence in your pricing? Would you like free help developing fair employment policies for your farm?
See our short video with current farmers Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm, Nancy Vail of Pie Ranch and Steve Munno of Massaro Community Farm and sign up and see full details of the program on the AJP website.
The Cornell Vegetable Program through CCE, NOFA-NY and the Agricultural Justice Project (AJP) now have funding to provide farmers in New York with free technical assistance with employment practices! We can help you with employment policies, integrating social justice values into employment practices, communication and conflict resolution processes, health and safety plans, and pricing your products to cover fair wages and production costs. If you’d like to participate, simply take a 30-minute self-assessment survey, share existing employment policy documents, and we will provide individualized suggestions and resources tailored to your needs. We’ll also invite you to workshops and field days to continue learning and sharing knowledge with others. Participation is confidential.
For more information, contact Robert Hadad (rgh26@cornell.edu).
Workshops on Pricing and Fair Labor Policies at the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY) On-Line Winter Conference
https://nofany.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2022-Winter-Conference-Workshop-Schedule.pdf
Saturday, January 22 from 10 – 11:15
How do you Know your Pricing is Right?
Presenter: Robert Hadad of Cornell Cooperative Extension in partnership with the Agricultural Justice Project
Growers contact us frequently asking about pricing for vegetable crops. This usually occurs just as the marketing season takes off. Answering this question is difficult for many reasons. There are no set rules for determining the appropriate prices for any crop and many factors come into play. What is needed is for growers to know what it cost them to grow it.
To understand what it costs to grow a crop, one needs to be able to identify all of the inputs that go into farming. It isn’t just about seeds and equipment, inputs also include fixed overhead costs to labor. Efficiency is another attribute to be considered. How long does it take to do certain jobs and how long should it really take? How do you measure this?
Sound challenging? It is. Understanding how all this works is a win-win situation for farms. Not only will you be able to figure out how to set a price that makes a profit, but all the data you collect to make this calculation will also provide usable financial information that is critical for making informed business decisions.
This session will go over what goes into a vegetable business operation, identifying associated costs, working these into the cost of production, and building out your price base – providing more accurate measures for profitability.
Saturday, January 22 from 2 – 3:15
Taking Our Labor Policies from Legal to Fair
Presenters: Jody Bolluyt of Roxbury Farm and Elizabeth Henderson of Peacework CSA
With a google search, you can find an employee handbook that lays out your legal responsibilities as an employer grounded in “at-will” law guaranteeing your power as employer. But if you want to create a resilient, stable team for your farm, and contribute to transforming farmwork into a respected career with livable compensation, you have to go beyond legal to policies and practices grounded in fairness. This workshop will help you think this through and provide attendees with a handbook modeled on the standards of the Agricultural Justice Project that meet the Good Food Purchasing Center requirements for ensuring “valued workforce.”
–Agricultural Justice Project
Cornell Cooperative Extension
Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York
