Coming this spring...

...a crop of columns! The best of a decade's worth of ideas, insights, and off-the-beat stories from the author of Farm Hands. Watch for it around Eastertime.

College readers say 'Farm Hands' elicits 'surprisingly emotional' reaction and change of perspective

Genesee Community College in Batavia launched a new class this year, Western New York Agriculture (AGR 190). The college wants to make students aware of the job opportunities at local farms, from Cornell researchers, feed and chemical salesmen, environmental consultants, nutritionists, herdsmen, milkers and crop harvesters. There’s a long list of jobs. The college also wants students to better appreciate food production.

The new class read Farm Hands and welcomed me to GCC last week to talk about my experiences. I’m thrilled by their positive reaction to the book. They said it helped them better understand what they were looking at when they toured local dairy, fruit and vegetable farms. Some of the students even called the book inspirational. They admire the farmworkers for traveling so far as young men, and for working so hard while they are here.

The students wrote reaction papers to Farm Hands, specifically to the chapters on planting onions on the muck, milking cows and picking apples. The class instructor shared some of them with me. Here are some of their comments:

“Every American needs to read this book and then take them self to a local farm and try this work. Perhaps they will have a new understanding of where their food comes from and how it gets to their table. I suspect the anti-immigration rhetoric would cease quickly and more laws like H-2A would be implemented to aid farmers in finding their farm help instead of penalizing them. What a wonderful world we would have if everyone behaved like the workers and farmers in Tom’s book.”

“Farming is demanding physically, mentally and financially. You must be able to give farming everything you’ve got!”

“After reading Farm Hands I was surprisingly very emotional. Tom Rivers did an excellent job at conveying the reality of the term ‘farm’ and everything contained therein … Tom Rivers’ realness in expressing details allows me to empathize with each individual task. Personally, I’d never want to work on an onion farm, let alone spend any time in that filthy muck.”

“I believe there are not enough American workers locally to fill the farming jobs here and elsewhere in the country. The jobs are physically demanding and require teamwork and manual dexterity. The workers from the other countries are highly skilled, physically fit, and highly motivated. There are few American workers that can compete with them.”

“In the past I have gotten a little irritated when the price of milk would rise to over $4 per gallon. I now realize that it is worth every penny.”

“Overall I can say I was surprised at the relationship between farmer and worker. I had the impression that this relationship was little more than a legal master-slave relationship where the workers were exploited. Now I see it as a win/win dependent relationship. The farmers need the workers and the workers need the work to provide for their families.”

Farm Hands, the next generation

Tom had a young assistant helping him sign books today.

E-xciting News!

Farm Hands is now available as an e-book through Barnes & Noble and Amazon! Here are the links:

Nook (B&N)

Kindle (Amazon)

More on the Glens Falls gig (click on pic to read "fine print")

Farm Hands author headlines Glens Falls book fair Nov. 6

Farm Hands is “well-done and important,” writes Mark Frost, publisher of The Chronicle in Glens Falls, NY.

Frost featured the book on the front page in the Oct. 20-26 issue of The Chronicle. A Q & A with Tom Rivers covers another two inside pages. (The Chronicle’s articles aren’t available through the Internet, which is probably a smart business decision.)

Frost likes Farm Hands so much he has made the book’s author the head-liner at the 16^th annual Chronicle Book Fair on Nov. 6. About 100 authors are expected for the event at the Queensbury Hotel.

“Migrant workers from Mexico, Guatemala, Jamaica and other southern nations are a huge, but largely invisible presence that is increasingly crucial to our economy,” Frost writes.

Dairy farmers in Washington County loaned Frost a copy of Farm Hands and he said he is convinced it is a worthy read for his community.

“Mr. Rivers went to work in the fields, and he writes clearly, intelligently and without bias or agenda,” Frost says.

I’m looking forward to the event. I’ve never been to Glens Falls. I’ve enjoyed discovering new towns in upstate New York as part of my travels the past 18 months talking about my experiences with farmworkers.

In other Farm Hands news, Barnes and Noble is restocking its shelves with this self-published effort – just in time for the holidays.

The time is ripe...

...for Farm Hands, the e-book: Coming soon in Kindle and ePub editions. (Watch for it here in the near future.)

Another trend of note: Farm Hands orders keep cropping up from the Midwest lately. Last week Nebraska and Iowa, this morning Kansas... Not sure why, but glad for the expanding audience.

Happy (almost) Fall, everyone!