FARMINGTON - A 20-member agricultural task force hopes to take advantage of what many see as "a widening window of opportunity" for local farmers as concerns about food safety and security mount.

The task force was the result of a recent meeting to work on a plan to develop agriculture in Franklin County as a major tool for economic development.

"When we talk about agriculture as a tool for economic development, we're talking about increasing opportunities for everyone in the region, not just the farmers," said Sandy River Farms' Bussie York, one of the organizers of the meeting.

Farmers, businesspeople and government officials gathered in August at the West Farmington Grange hall. The task force, with support from Mark Hews of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will hold an organizational meeting on Sept. 25 in the conference room of the Western Mountains Alliance.

Last April, York called for the formation of an agricultural task force at a standing-room-only meeting at the Grange hall.

"I see agriculture as a sleeping giant. One that could, with planning, be one of the engines that fires up the county's economic future. It did in the past; there is no reason why it couldn't do so in the future," York said. He was referring to the times when local farmers could sell just about everything they grew to the canneries that flourished here from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.

The group's to-do list included attracting more young farmers to the area, increasing the acreage in production, taxing farms as businesses, creating new markets and distribution systems, growing bio-fuels, increasing production of value-added products and recognizing the importance of collaborative production, processing, marketing and distribution.

The meeting was sponsored by the Greater Franklin Development Corp., Maine Farmland Trust and Western Mountains Alliance.

For more information, contact Mark Hews, Threshold to Maine Resource Conservation and Development at 657-3131 or threshold@gwi.net.