Prime farmland in Franklin County means fertile potential for agriculture

Agriculture as a tool for economic development in Franklin County was a subject that not only engaged the farmers, but the elected officials and businessmen who attended a meeting at the West Farmington Grange last month.

They heard Mark Hews of the Threshold to Maine Research, Conservation and Development explain that not only could this economic approach to agriculture create new markets for our farmers and protect farmland from development, it could also create new jobs and business opportunities for all of us.

It’s not a new or novel idea, but it’s something we forgot or lost track of when the shoe shops and wood turning and paper mills were flourishing. It’s something we need to get back to. Agriculture drove our economy in the past; it could do so again, thanks to the prime farmland along the Sandy River and elsewhere in the county.

Remember the canneries that flourished here from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century? They bought just about everything that grew here: beans, corn, squash and apples and they provided jobs for those who worked in them as well as those who transported the canned goods to distant markets.

With planning and investment, agriculture could again be one of the engines that drives our economy. While I’m not talking about rebuilding the canneries, I am talking about investing in slaughterhouses to process our growing grass-based beef operations and free-range chickens and turkeys. Look at what Ben and Jerry’s has done for Vermont’s dairy farmers and overall economy in recent years.

As one of those who helped to organize the meeting at the Grange, (I wear two hats: Farmington farmer and Farmington Planning board member) that was hosted by the town of Farmington, I see agriculture as a sleeping giant. A giant that could, with planning, be one of the primary forces driving the county’s economic future.

I have farmed the rich intervale soils of the Sandy River for almost half a century and I believe that we farmers are doing our part to secure the economic future of the region and for that matter the whole state, by diversifying and becoming more sustainable. But we can’t do it alone and should not have to do it alone.

By involving the community in agriculture, we aren’t just asking families to buy locally grown food, we are asking the political community to consider how land that is producing food is taxed. We are also asking the economic developers and the business community to help us develop new markets, and in the course of doing so, invest in processing plants, storage facilities and trucking operations.

As I said, it’s not a new idea. During the meeting, Hews told the audience of the work he has been doing with towns in Oxford County, which have recently formed the River Valley Agricultural Commission. Its purpose is to identify an agricultural strategy to strengthen the presence and the benefits of agriculture there. At least one town in Franklin County is also beginning to explore the idea.

The time is ripe to go back to the future.

Herbert “Bussie” York of Sandy River Farms is a member of the Farmington Planning Board, Maine FarmLink Advisory Board of Maine Farmland Trust and the Franklin County Committee Farm Service Agency.