(light music) - So, the annual salary I would say of a farmer is really hard to parse out.

And it's really hard to pinpoint a number, but I think the best way I could answer that question is farmers don't make enough.

- I don't think you can be a champion or an ally of food justice if you don't think about the entire ecosystem.

So, that's thinking about the individual that picked the crop, that grew it, that we have to have justice on that end.

I think the more people understand the source and that the worker that touched that was paid a fair and livable wage, that they were treated fairly and just, is as important to the product that's coming into the store.

- We should certainly, at any time that we can, buy local.

But, the thing about it is we're in this weird dichotomy where we need food to be more affordable.

But at the same time, a lot of the farmers, they need that food price to be higher so they can pay for their inputs and pay for their land.

And so, it is this weird dichotomy of the value of food.

- You know, I'm a farmer.

I'm a dietician.

I'm farming because it's important and it's a great way to be outside.

I get to grow my own food for myself and my community.

And I got to kinda grow my own business, too.

Farming is not easy.

I started in 2018.

It takes a lot of work, lot of labor.

It also takes money.

You know, if you want to farm on a scale where you can make money, you have to also put in money.

- Farming involves a lot of investment, financial investment.

So, the money you make doesn't necessarily go into your pocket, it goes into planting for next year or fixing things that have fallen apart this year.

- Farming is definitely, drastically an underpaid career.

- And it's really hard for people to make it just being a farmer.

People, historically, had passed down farms, like, generation to generation.

But, if your family does not have this farming business, or land, or resources to pass on to you, it's just a really huge hurdle to build up that equity and those resources to be able to invest in a farm business.

So, that's a huge inequity that exists, I think, to people getting started.

- I think race affects everything that you do, starting from the time you're born to the time you leave this earth.

Like, every aspect of your life, your race is a part of it.

And of course, it affects the type of loans that you get and your access to land, so I think it's still a factor.

- [Laura] Continuing to work on how to get more farmers on the land is a really important thing because it's such a difficult business.

And so, we need to figure out how can we make farming a viable business and a viable career for people.