Save Our Farmland

An acre a minute. That’s how much farmland is currently being lost to development and other causes in America, according to a report written by the American Farmland Trust titled Farming on the Edge.

The statistic, and others closer to home, including how many acres on the Island are in active food production (just over nine hundred), were cited by Jon Previant, executive director of the Farm Institute, at a small gathering in the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury on Tuesday night. Mr. Previant also had some pithy words to say about farming on the Island: “If you want to eat local, you’ve got to grow local, and if you want to grow local, you need local soil,” he said. The words echoed around the room.

It was the second meeting to discuss the Martha’s Vineyard Farm Project, an initiative whose goal is to raise the money buy thirty-seven acres of farmland in the Iron Hill section of Oak Bluffs and keep the land in permanent food production for the Island. Formerly Thimble Farm, the property has been leased to Whippoorwill Farm for the past several years and is owned by Eric Grubman, a seasonal resident of Katama. Mr. Grubman stepped in four years ago to save the farm from being sold on the residential real estate market. The purchase was always intended as a short-term fix while a plan was developed for the farmland. And now that plan is needed, because recently Mr. Grubman said he is ready to see the land change hands again, ideally to another farming enterprise. Mr. Grubman generously has offered to contribute an undisclosed sum of money back toward the purchase price of two and a half million dollars.

Enter the Martha’s Vineyard Farm Project, whose backers include the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, the Vineyard Conservation Society, the Island Grown Initiative and Whippoorwill Farm. The emerging plan calls for buying the farmland and placing the land under the ownership of Sheriff’s Meadow, while the Agricultural Society would own the farm buildings, which include a large expanse of greenhouses. Housing for farm workers would be built on a portion of the land not restricted for agricultural use. The farm is already covered by an Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR), held by the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank, but additional restrictions would be placed on the land to ensure that it is used for food production and could not be converted to a horse or tree farm (allowed under the current APR).

Still in its earliest stages, the plan needs much work to sharpen and make it clear and understandable for the public, including potential donors who would contribute to the purchase of the land. The farm project organizers recently have enlisted the help of Equity Trust Inc., a national nonprofit that provides assistance for innovative projects to save farmland.

And if thirty-seven acres doesn’t sound like much, Mr. Previant reminded the group that everything is on a scale. If this were Nebraska, he said, no one would call a meeting to talk about thirty-seven acres of farmland. But this is the Vineyard, and the land at Thimble Farm amounts to four per cent of the total land in food production.

Originally part of six hundred acres that was farmed by Elisha Smith, the land is prime agricultural soil and should remain in food production.

There are so many things to like about this project. In his informative remarks Tuesday night, Mr. Previant noted that there is still unmet demand for food grown right here on the Vineyard. The more we produce, he said, the more people consume.

Employing local farmers. Keeping land in agricultural use for food production. Growing products consumers want to buy. These are the cornerstones of a sustainable economy and exactly what the Vineyard needs and needs to encourage.

What has yet to emerge is a clear plan that will take a great idea and make it a reality. Some years back, we saw the Vineyard Conservation Society and its able executive director Brendan O’Neill rise to a similar challenge, leading to the permanent protection of the Native Earth Teaching Farm in Chilmark.

Who will steward the Martha’s Vineyard Farm Project to ensure that it takes root and grows?