FARMINGTON — The “Changing Face of Agriculture in Franklin County,” as seen through a series of slides depicting some 20 cutting-edge local farms and farmers, will be the focus of a public gathering Saturday, March 19.

It will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Farmington Grange on Bridge Street in West Farmington.

Grange member, journalist and photographer Jo Josephson has taken the title of her slide presentation from Clarence Day’s “Farming in Maine 1860-1940,” published by the University of Maine Press. In his introduction, Day wrote: “Constant adaptation to constant change — that is both the key to and summary of farming in Maine.”

Josephson said that it is also the key to its success.

The presentation weaves photographs of local farmers at work together with the latest agricultural statistics to make the claim that agriculture is not dying in Franklin County but merely “changing its face.”

High-tech embryonics and greenhouses, value-added turkey and beef products, organic pepper jams, breads and cheese are one feature of the new face, Josephson said. Community-supported agriculture, local farmers markets and “agri-tainment” make up another.

Josephson will also talk about the digital color photographs that make up the presentation, and she will display some of the black-and-white photos she prints the old-fashioned way in her darkroom in Temple.