A reader writes:<\/p>\n
This is similar to an internship opportunity on a startup company\u2014except that it\u2019s a startup (and beautiful) farm.
Nick Lund-Molfese is a \u00a0good pal of mine (formerly director of the Office of Peace and Social Justice for the Archdiocese of Chicago) who has recently become director of the office of social ministry for the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri.
Amazingly, the diocese has turned over 114 acres of beautiful Ozarls farmland\u2014with a large residence and barn\u2014to Nick for use as a kind of retreat center and working farm. The mandate is partly to create a kind of distributist model farm\/community over the next several years.
Here\u2019s their startup website<\/a>, which has photos of the house\/barn\/countryside.
And they have an internship available\u2014all living expenses paid but no salary beyond a small monthly allowance.
Moreover, Nick and his large young family are very solid JP II (and social justice) Catholics, so the intern would have an opportunity to share in the life of this terrific (I can attest) family.
Here\u2019s a partial description from Nick:<\/p>\nWe are a house of formation, since that is our primary mission, along with being a farm, retreat center for the new evangelization, and a place for experiments in distributism.
We have an interest in researching and implementing financially self-sustaining agriculture.
In addition to the work aspect, an ideal intern would need to think about the business plan, input costs, best practices, sales prices, times and markets, etc. \u00a0In line with the distributist idea of creating economically self-sustaining small agriculture, OK, this is an incubator for small scale testing.\u00a0
I am particularly interested in seeing if sheep can be raised and sold on the land we have in a way that not only covers all of the animals\u2019 expenses but also some of the farm expenses as well, such as fencing,\u00a0equipment, mortgage, barn, etc. \u00a0For example, rotating through small\u00a0paddocks\u00a0at precise times based on grass growth seems to give superior yields and better\u00a0parasite\u00a0control vs open grazing on the whole land.
Obviously all those expenses will not be covered in the first year, but over the long-run.\u00a0
We have space and funds to provide room and board for a\u00a0suitable\u00a0intern who would make at least an 18 month\u00a0commitment\u00a0to develop the property as a viable small farm\u00a0operation. \u00a0In addition to the sheep, we will have chickens and goats, mostly to help keep the property in check for grass, weeds, ticks, etc.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIf you know of someone who might qualify, please forward the info to Nick: nick@thills.org<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n