Erin Axelrod, who recently finished a degree in urban studies at Barnard College, will set aside “comfort” in order to live in a tent, using an outdoor composting toilet and harvesting organic vegetables near Petaluma, California.

Gina Runfola, English and creative writing student, traded poetry books to feed lambs. An intern at 3-Corner Field Farm in Shushan, NY, she was one of more than 20 job hopefuls.

In addition, Jamie Katz, an English major at Kenyon College in Ohio, plants peach trees at Virginia’s Holly Tree Farm.

These three are part of a group of students in search of both work (regardless of pay) and social change. Armed with old copies of Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” a handbook for industrial agriculture, they are ready to move to farms as interns this summer.

For various reasons, the interest in summer farm work among college students has never been as high, according to dozens of farmers, university professors, and people who coordinate agricultural apprenticeships. Applications used to have an average of 75 a year and this season, it has over 200, with more coming every day.

Alex Liebman, 19, is part of this brave new group. A biology student at Macalester College in St. Paul, he is leaving his books for while to devote one year at Full Belly Farm. Now on his third farm internship, Liebman has come to love working at the farm, giving himself a break from cell phones and Facebook. Liebman knows that while being in the farm cannot directly change poverty or dirty politics, it offers him the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of his labor.

One of the best things about spending summer in the farm is that it helps build an enthusiastic attitude among students in terms of food safety, local food, and the impact of agriculture on the environment.