Agro-ecology Summer Intern
Do you ever wonder what life is like on an organic vegetable farm? Do you have a desire to grow and distribute healthy vegetables and fruits? Do you yearn to make an impact on local food justice? Do you want to get serious about lowering your carbon footprint? How about gaining experience in community-based, consensus decision-making? Mustard Seed Community Farm would be an excellent place for you as an Agro-ecology Intern contributing to the farm's food justice, land stewardship and community building missions, learning valuable professional and life skills in the process. Room and board provided, unpaid but rewarding, this internship offers many opportunities. Find out more with farm overview, job description and qualifications, Covid considerations, principles and application details below.
Farm Overview
Mustard Seed Community Farm is a volunteer-based 11-acre, 13 year old, Catholic Worker farm founded on ethical food production and distribution, ecological land use, and community as our primary identity and mission.
- Using organic and sustainable methods, we grow a diverse variety of vegetables and fruits for distribution to local food donation venues, volunteer workers, and paying members in roughly equal proportions. The farm also includes beekeeping for honey production and tends a small flock of chickens and lambs.
- Land stewardship activities include prairie restoration, crop rotation, cover cropping and permaculture-inspired practices.
- We promote community interaction by sponsoring regular public potluck discussions and a variety of classes and workshops, as well as participating in other community events and groups.
Job Description
Our Agro-ecology interns play a vital role in the daily work and life of the farm, including preparing and sharing meals, and also help the farm team with consensus decision-making. The interns will also be gaining leadership experience working alongside, training and managing volunteers from the local community . Other learning opportunities could include carpentry, seed saving, candle making, food preservation and spiritual reflection.
Agro-ecology interns will also have the opportunity to contribute to unique projects based on interests and skills. Want science experience? Help us manage our on-farm research, making observations and data collection/analysis. This year we will again take part in replicated, controlled experiments in collaboration with the Practical Farmers of Iowa. Want teaching experience? Teach youth and adults in summer classes at the farm or in the community. Want design, art, or writing experience? Focus on our newspaper, CSA newsletters, or web presence. Or, focus on another
aspect of the farm, like prairie or fruit production.
Job Qualifications
- An interest in food sovereignty-based production agriculture and social justice
- A tolerance of varied living conditions including but not limited to:
- Limited access to hot running water, electricity, and internet
- Heat and humidity
- Physical labor in various horticultural settings, i.e. weeding, mulching, hoeing, etc.
- Working with people of diverse backgrounds to create a productive team.
Covid Pandemic Considerations
Mustard Seed Community Farm practices Covid-safe protocols, meeting or exceeding CDC recommendations. 2020 internships proved successful and, though challenging due to the circumstances, the farm was still able to follow through on most of its goals. Community events had to be curtailed, but other ways of fulfilling this mission are continuing to be explored. The nature of the 2021 season will be determined as it progresses, but prospective interns can be confident in the farm's dedication to its community members' health and safety. Interns will be expected to be positive participants in this endeavor.
Principles of Community, Work and Living
Our farm is part of the Catholic Worker movement. We welcome persons of all backgrounds, spiritual beliefs, genders and sexualities. We expect 30 hours of work per week towards the farm’s mission, more than half of which would be in the manual labor of food production. In addition to the 30 hr/week , interns will be expected to contribute to daily living tasks and participate in farm events. Though unpaid, possible opportunities exist for funding through schools and non-profit groups. Simple room and board are provided. Plenty of learning, working, and fun are close at hand at our rustic rural Iowa location, near Ames, in Boone County.
Instructions to apply:
Send cover letter with personal goals for an internship with Mustard
Seed, resume, and 2 references to mustardseedbee@gmail.com, or
apply in Handshake system.
Applications will be considered in order received, with a final
deadline of March 15, 2021. Internships can occur between May 1 and
October 1, with a minimum length of 8 weeks. Typical undergraduate
internships are 8-12 weeks.
For more information:
- Contact Nate Kemperman, 515-231-2002, mustardseedbee@gmail.com
or Alice McGary, 978-471-8414, mustardseedbee@gmail.com
- Visit mustardseedfarm.org