Why "Save a Farm?"

For a number of years I was involved in county-level planning for farmland preservation. During that period, and since, the loss of farmland has continued unabated: were the average daily loss of 6 acres to continue at the present rate, it is estimated that by 2035 farms in Portage County, Ohio would be history.

Although none of us cannot see that far ahead, the prospect of such loss is worrisome enough to me that, with my wife, I developed the Save a Farm project.

“Save a Farm” is modeled after the marketing strategy employed by Burma Shave between the 1920s and 1960s, when that company placed a series of signs along US highways to promote its product. However, rather than the pros and cons of being well-shaven, the five-line roadside Save a Farm jingles (which change every two weeks) speak of the benefits that accrue to all of us from the presence of viable, local independent farms and of the problems those farms face.

Whether “Save a Farm” can make a “difference” I can’t say. However, I don’t believe that either doing nothing on behalf of farming or limiting our concern to analysis and discussions is an acceptable alternative. Not now.

Together with his wife, Carol, Fred Maier raises Shetland sheep on a small farm in North East Ohio’s Portage County. (4695 Bassett Road. Atwater, OH 44201)