I don't only need dollars

Spring is often a time of new beginnings. For the last five years, it’s always been the time when school ends and a new summer job starts.  It is usually a time riddled with the anxiety and anticipation of living in a new place, working a new job, and making new friends.  But this spring has an additional element of anxiety.   I am still moving to a new place, but instead of working for someone, I am starting my own business with three friends.  We are leasing a four acre parcel on an organic farm to grow chickens, vegetables and staple crops (dry beans and grains) on Vancouver Island.  This is essentially my ideal job: a wee bit of office work, but mostly building fences, shoveling manure, planting seeds, hoeing rows, hauling bins of zucchini, selling at markets, and the like. 

I am nervous and excited to be self-employed as a farmer.  

I am nervous because when you’re on someone’s payroll, you get paid after you put in your hours and get to go home when your shift is over.  But this year, making a net profit is not dependent on the hours of work I do, but the result of the hours of work I do.  This is scary because the result of my work is at the mercy of the weather, soil fertility, pests, available infrastructure, marketing opportunities, and many other variables. 

I am excited to be self-employed in this manner, because my work will largely provide my basic needs.  We are exchanging labour for rent at the farm house, we are getting paid in firewood to work for the neighbours, we are growing food we can preserve, and we are brewing our own beer.   It feels good to push away from our economic system that is based on money—to acquire our basic needs from soil and work, and to rely on neighbours and be able to return the favour.  

It is odd that I feel more secure being on a pay-roll rather than working directly for my own food and shelter.  But it is a bold, and perhaps false, assumption to say that our economic system is more stable or secure than the weather and agreements made with people. 

Don’t get me wrong, our goal is not to be self-sufficient or stop using money; we aim to have an economically profitable business so we can expand the business, put savings away, and go on adventures.  But it is nice to be able to “stick it to the man” a bit, and feel more connected to the people and place we live with and depend upon.