FARMINGTON – Donna Tracy remembers when there were five working farms on Mosher Hill Road and four on Titcomb Hill Road.

Now, there are none on Mosher Hill and only one fully operational farm – her family’s Maple Hill Farm – on Titcomb Hill.

Big companies are driving down prices, hired help wants more pay than is affordable, and nothing comes cheap – except veggies – anymore. “If you can make enough to pay your bills and have a little left over to live on, you’re doing great,” Tracy said Tuesday.

Some local people are trying to change that by encouraging local businesses to buy local, and not just for the economic benefits such a move would give farmers.

Eating locally grown foods can have health benefits as well, Western Mountains Alliance program Eat Smart Eat Local representative Kathleen Beauregard said. To explore that idea, the alliance is holding a conference next Friday and Saturday, Oct. 6 and 7, that will bring area food service workers together with scientists studying agriculture.

School lunch nutrition will be one focus of the event, Beauregard said. “(We will be) looking at the quality of our school lunch programs and how those menus can be improved by creating a closer link with the food, vegetables, meats and dairy that are raised locally.”

An expert in soil microbiology and an expert on the ramifications of U.S farm policy will both speak, Beauregard said. One of them – Mark Muller, of the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis – will be discussing how farm policies contribute to obesity.

“We have made consuming junk food an economically smart choice, particularly for people with limited incomes,” Muller said in written commentary to his paper Food Without Thought: How U.S. Farm Policy Contributes to Obesity. He contends U.S. policy, which has driven down the price of things like corn and soybeans – often used as sweeteners – makes healthier choices like vegetables and fruits about 40 percent pricier.

Public health and farmers suffer as a result, according to his commentary.

By encouraging schools, local businesses, and local people to buy locally-grown produce, Beauregard says Mainers can work to ameliorate both problems. “It’s a real win-win we hope to accomplish,” she said, “having a positive impact on the local economy as well as impacting the nutritional quality (of food).”

But there are challenges, she said. Using local produce in schools often creates more work for cafeteria personnel, she said.

Tracy, too, knows there are challenges. “I think it would be great if it (the WMA program) could work,” she said. “But there are a lot of federal regulations – I don’t know.”

“If it could (work), it would be wonderful,” she added.

Early reservations for the program will be taken until Oct. 5, according to a WMA press release. For more information on the event, call 778.3885.