has long been a fluid and flexible concept. It can change over time, and its rise or fall is rarely predictable. 

In a world where so much can be defined, clarified, and backed by science and research - such as climate change and systemic racism - and still one can choose to look away or fight reality, it's not surprising that the more flexible concepts become especially hard to grasp. 

As we continue a deep dive into our policy shift on wages - we no longer post any opportunities that do not pay minimum wage or better - we're looking today at one aspect of how this decision evolved: what constitutes compensation.

When we launched GFJ in 2010, we posted all sorts of internships, volunteer opportunities, and apprenticeships on the site. At that time, we embraced a 'more is more' mentality for two reasons: as an antidote to what was then a fairly narrow description of what it meant to work in food (chefs and restaurants were what primarily came to mind) and as an expression of our philosophy around networking. We believed - then and now - that there are all kinds of ways to make connections, that you don't have to have a degree in something to excel at it, and that a career path is not a straight line with decades of experience connecting each dot. 

In spite of how good all of that might sound, we also failed to look at racial equity in relation to job opportunities - in other words, the fact that we are not all starting from the same place, and not all opportunities are open and available to everyone in the same way. Our own Whiteness translated as cheerful optimism and a belief that being as open as possible meant that our intentions were more meaningful than our impact. 

As we learned, we made shifts - much of which can be credited to YOU, our readers and community members, who have reached out every step of the way with questions, insights, criticism and feedback. We stopped posting internships that only paid with 'experience' - a tough decision given the high value of experience...an easy one given who is allowed access to experience and why.

We re-designed our job posting process, separating internships into their own category with nuanced Compensation requirements - those experientially rich positions that did not pay a monetary minimum wage could be posted if they did provide non-monetary compensation, such as housing, food, formal education and / or college credit. 

At the same time that we removed non-monetary options of payment, we also took a step away from the standard offering of a 'stipend' - a categorization of pay that typically signifies less than minimum wage and/or the absence of worker protections and benefits. And in the realm of food-related jobs, the combination of these two forms of payment are most often found on small farms.

On a daily basis, we tackle questions of what it means to support wages over small farms, and find ourselves frustrated with the reality that it is often impossible to do both. Why do farm jobs pay so little? (More on that question, and some of its perplexing, heartbreaking answers next week.)

We also confront the fact that we don't think cash is the only valuable form of compensation. Many of you know of or participate in alternate forms of currency as a way to subvert capitalism and reclaim the economy, and we are your fans. We applaud the effort to find new pathways to success - it's fundamental to what we do at GFJ. Yet we must acknowledge that we are operating within a system that places money above all else.

As Robin DiAngelo clarifies in her book, White Fragility, "...in the United States, only whites have the collective social and institutional power and privilege over people of color." Disrupting and redesigning systems won't be successful unless we fully recognize the reality and function of the existing system.

We know that none of this is a new problem. Our policy isn't in place to shame or disparage small farmers who have not been able to pay their workers - or even themselves - a living wage. We see our place in the conversation as one of continually asking questions, seeking knowledge over time and through collaboration, and using what power we do have to make small shifts in the advance toward social justice - dollar by dollar, inch by inch.

Yours in food, justice, and food justice,

Tay + Dor

photo by Michael A. Estrada for GFJ Stories