Factor e Farm Manager

Last updated March 19,2012

We are currently recruiting a full time farmer for Factor e Farm.

=Introduction=

We are interested in candidates with diversified farming experience: field agriculture, forestry, greenhouses, animal husbandry, earthworks, etc. Familiarity with heavy equipment and farm equipment is a must, as is an appreciation for the soil food web. Basic familiarity with equipment maintenance, repair, torching and welding is also desirable.

One of the roles is to test and demonstrate the usability of LifeTrac and other open source OSE equipment to provide a full, year-round diet to participants at Factor e Farm.

The farmer is encouraged to document progress openly with a daily log and vlog on the wiki (see Marcin Log for an example) using an automatic upload platform such as an Android smart phone (provided).

We are interested in an interdisciplinary generalists with a diverse skill set outside of farming. We are looking for positive, ethical, energetic team players - interested in lifelong learning. We like to cross train our participants by pairing disparate people, so expect to be learning new things constantly. We are both practitioners and thinkers, and until the GVCS is built, we like to do more than talk.

The typical schedule is a solid 40 hour work week.

=Requirements=
 * 10+ years of farming experience as a source of livelihood
 * Familiarity with a diverse set of agricultural operations
 * Openness to new ideas
 * Open Culture
 * Living on site
 * Minimum 6 month commitment

=Compensation=
 * Negotiable based on experience.

=Notes=


 * Land Regeneration Management – Factor e Farm suffers from serious erosion and fertility issues caused by decades of prior commercial row-cropping. To ameliorate this, our program calls for building berms, ponds, and other earthworks to address erosion directly, plus, extensive mulching, as well as intensive rotational grazing as a rapid way to improve the soil food web. The primary tools that are to be used in these tasks are bulldozers, ruminants, and hay-bales.


 * The farmer – or more specifically – the open source agroecologist – is the pivotal person in the community who provides nutrition to the FeF team and thereby is the primary contibutor to the good health of the community. The open source agroecologist is responsible for food production – from garden and orchard to field crops, animal husbandry, fishery, and forestry – and for food storage and processing, such as seed cleaning, seed saving, and oil expression. The farmer is responsible for producing food, fuel, and fiber crops (both wood and clothing) – while maintaining a diverse and integrated ecosystem and soil food web that improves in quality over time.

=Applying=
 * If you are interested in this position, please send a resume and email of interest to recruiting at opensourceecology dot org.