Within a healthy system of food produc tion and distribution, farms would not need “saving.” However, as it is, we are losing farmland (and the corresponding skills,) at alarming rates. (In Massachusetts, about 20 per cent in the last 25 years.) The traditional system of inherited family farms is not sufficient.

The future of food is uncertain and changing fast. Our best course lies in creating a number of diverse systems of production, from farms, forests and wild areas to window boxes and backyard berry bushes. We aren’t just solving immediate and local problems here. We’re evolving the future of our agriculture, and should take the work seriously.

Farm ownership and organization can take many forms. We know of large and small farms owned by individuals, by families, corporations, churches or schools. Some are owned by towns, the state, or are on federal or tribal lands. Others belong to their members, or to a cooperative. Farms are leased, rented or bartered. Some farmers own their farms; on others the farmers are hired help. Each model has its ups and downs.

We should be working with all of them. Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini writes about food that is “good, clean and fair.” Our goal as an Island community should be to produce and consume this kind of food in every way that we can. As in nature, ability to adapt increases with diversity.

Each farm is a reflection of the land and of the farmers who live and work there. Each has its unique potential and its own problems, and may require different types of “saving.” Sometimes buying land, at other times business planning, or labor, or some other thing is needed.

Our farm, Native Earth Teaching Farm, for instance, is not “saved.” Nothing requires us to be open to the public, to host community gardens or to continue to farm. Grants, conservation money, government money, or deep-pocket donors do not fund our farm. Our donation box does not quite cover the extra liability insurance for having the public on our property. We do not need to buy our land, but we depend very much on other types of community support.

As farmers and as eaters, we will be truly saved only by being part of a strong, resilient and determined regional network. (For an example of this kind of network, recently half a litter of our piglets survived only because of drinking Mermaid Farm Dairy’s raw milk.) Our goal is to live on an Island where more people than not grow food, where young people are eager to take up farm life whether or not they were born to it, and where elders enjoy free-range eggs and tea surrounded by abundant gardens.

Let’s all take a step in this direction right now! Saving farmland, in whatever way it is done, is always a good investment. Plant a seed. Your grandchildren will thank you.

 

Rebecca Gilbert is co-owner of the Native Earth Teaching Farm in Chilmark.