Save a Farm

The Save a Farm series reflects my concern over the loss of independent farms and the decreasing number of men and women who can make farms work. Farmers face varied problems:

• Rising costs of land, labor, fuel, and supplies
• Decreasing profits from shrinking local markets and increasing competition from industrial agriculture and from off-shore suppliers
• Withering infrastructure: fewer small scale processors, feed mills, implement dealers for sales and service, and large animal veterinarians.
• An aging farm population

It's a tough situation for independent farms . . . but not only for farms. Increasingly it will affect all of us. Consider, for example, two issues frequently in the news. (1) Fuel prices and availability: the typical item on a grocery shelf is said to have traveled an average of 1200 miles. Can we continue to afford that transportation as fuel prices increase and in the face of anticipated petroleum shortfalls? (2) Food safety: We see sporadic incidents of accidental food contamination during processing or in transport. Lurking also is the specter of sabotage to the nation's food supply chain. What better safeguard than the knowledge of where, and by whom, one's food is grown? There is no single, or simple, answer to those questions. However, for starters, there are things that each of us can do:

• Buy locally. Seek out and support local growers. Encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same.
• Cook! Can! Freeze! local products. Their quality will surprise you. And most of every dollar spent on local farms products will be recycled right back into the local economy.
• Involve young people. Keep a garden with them, or help them make applesauce, or jelly, or a pie. Keep it simple. Make it fun.
• Inform yourself about land use issues. Follow those issues in both local and national newspapers. Farm and Dairy spotlights local issues in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio and also covers state and federal policy initiatives.
• Attend the meetings of local zoning and planning commissions. (Not infrequently there are vacancies on those commissions; inquire about the procedure for being appointed to fill a vacancy.) If you live in an area that has a regional planning commision, attend its meetings also. Ask township, county, and state officials about farmland preservation and farm viability. Do not underestimate the effect of public monitoring.
• Talk to farmers. Listen to farmers.
• Speak out. Save a Farm.

Fred Maier
www.saveafarm.org