A lack of available labor makes it difficult for Colorado farmers to sell more of what they grow. The Mobile Farm Workforce (MFW) offers veterans, members of the refugee community, and experienced farm-hands a living wage, while providing efficient, on-demand labor to Colorado farmers and ranchers so that they can bring more of their products to market.
Farmers work hard to feed us. Yet many have difficulty making ends meet, and the lack of available labor makes it increasingly difficult for farmers to harvest and sell more of what they grow. In fact, the number of field and crop workers in Colorado declined by 36.7 percent between 2002 and 2014. The Mobile Farm Workforce will provide on-demand and efficient labor to Colorado farmers and ranchers, supporting their efforts to grow and/or produce nutrient-dense food and earn a sustainable living.
The Mobile Farm Workforce (MFW) will provide Colorado farmers and ranchers with much-needed labor, either on the spur-of-the-moment or by scheduling the MFW in advance. The goal is to create a worker-owned cooperative that will provide on-demand, mobile and efficient labor to farmers and ranchers year round while offering veterans, refugees, and experienced farm-hands the opportunity to become worker-owners and establish a new paradigm of fairness and wage equity in agricultural labor practices.
The MFW pilot project is a stepping stone to the establishment of a statewide, worker-owned cooperative that would provide the nearly 34,000 farms and ranches in Colorado with on-demand, mobile and efficient labor year round. It will reduce the amount of unharvested (i.e., surplus) agriculture annually remaining on Colorado farms due to a lack of labor and help farmers and ranchers bring to market and sell more of the food they produce and/or grow.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
