Jess-Viborg-Week 5

Today was an interesting day at work, but not because there was a lot to do. I had a good day to sit back and reflect on the last few weeks here and some of the conversations that I have been able to share with many different people.

Sometime last week I had a conversion with Peter about the work force here in Denmark. He informed me that the unemployment rate in Denmark is extremely high and that many people simply do not want to work. This same subject was brought to my attention again only a few days later when I spoke to a dairy farmer.

From what I understand, Polish people are willing to move to Denmark and seek employment doing jobs that the Danish people would rather not do. Polish people are supposed to be paid the same amount of money as the Danish people, but that is not always the case.

I find this very interesting because it seems to me that it almost mirrors what is happening in the United States. Many Hispanic people move to the United States and do jobs that Americans choose not to do. For example, jobs working with livestock are often filled by those who are not from the United States. The same is true in Denmark. The people who are uprooting their families and moving to Denmark or the United States are taking on jobs that have to do with agriculture.

So my question is, why do I hear from farmers, both in the U.S. and Denmark, that they have the greatest jobs in the world...but nobody wants to work for them? Is it the way society views farmers? Is it the way farm work is portrayed? Or are farmers just so cheap (or rather so poor) that they cannot offer salaries, vacation time, health insurance, and other benefits that maybe another employer can?

I want to know how people view farm work. I know that it is extremely hard work, you never have a week or even sometimes a day to take off. I know that the work is often dirty, very dangerous, and time consuming. But, I know that I have loved growing up on a farm. My parents love what they do and the farmers that I have spoken to here also love what they do.

I am wondering if the idea that farming is the greatest job in the world is simply because it is "in the eye of the beholder". If someone had asked me as a freshman or sophomore in high school if I loved living on a farm, I would have laughed at them and asked for them to tell me a specific task on the farm. I would then answer accordingly. There are really good days and really, really, bad days, but as a whole I think that farming is one of the greatest professions in the world. So, in that case, I get back to my original question as to why no one wants to work on a farm?

I think this is a question that could come back to haunt our country as well as other countries around the world, because if there are no farmers to make the world food, there will be no food in the world.