Farm Hands: Hard work and hard lessons from Western New York fields

Tom Rivers, a reporter for The Daily News in Batavia, N.Y., wrote a first-person series about farm work in 2008 that won state and national awards. Now the series, with more background and other information, has been compiled in a book, Farm Hands: Hard work and hard lessons from Western New York fields.

Rivers worked at a dozen farms in Orleans and Genesee counties, trying to find out why so few local residents are willing to work on farms. He discovered the work requires many skills, enorm...