Volunteers + Small Farm = Crop Mob

What's a young urbanite with an interest in sustainable food, an itch for some honest outdoor work and a free Saturday to do? There aren't enough urban community gardens to go around, and the majority of idealistic young downtown-dwellers don't exactly own a farm outside the city limits.

The answer is now apparent: Join a crop mob. Crop mob? It sounds like some kind of agricultural protest group, and in a way, it kind of is. Though it's also just a group of volunteers who want to spend a few hours mucking around with shovels and hoes. But the whole point is to help local, small farms get a leg up, which in its own small way is a protest against the dehumanizing influence mega-corporations are having over our food systems.

Here's the idea: Connected through word-of-mouth and digital media, crop mobbers pop up on whatever farm needs some extra help, whipping through chores that would take the farmer months in a matter of hours, reports the New York Times.

The mob movement started in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, an area patchworked with small, sustainable farms. It is spreading across the country, though, as young people become increasingly interested in where their food comes from and more and more concerned about the environmental impacts of industrial farming. Crop mobbing is a great way to get some experience on the land and support a cause that many feel is fundamental to a healthy and prosperous future for our country.

Plus, there's the camaraderie. "Part of Crop Mob is about community," Rob Jones, one of the movement's grass-roots leaders, told the Times. "There’s nothing like picking rocks out of fields to bring people together."

Photos by Chewonki Semester School via Flickr.