I’ve been running my own garden for three years now on a community plot. I don’t ask anyone to work for me, and I don’t pay anyone. I pick what I want and everyone else does the same. Sometimes they help, sometimes they don’t. It doesn’t change anything for me.

I can’t fix your busted local economy for you. I do know that paying $30/hr will get a lot of people out doing something they don’t necessarily like, even if they have to drive for it. Even in a place with ridiculous cost of living like California.

I knew guys who left their house at 1 in the morning to be 120 miles away for the start of work at 4. I asked one of them why they did it. They said “Where we live, you either go out and get a real job, or you work in the fields”. It’s not even about the money. It’s mostly about the benefits. How many farmers offer medical, paid holiday, or sick pay?

These guys worked 10s and 12s every day. They work hard, and they want that work to mean more for them than someone else’s profit. That’s ALL you are offering.