The FARM Institute angered many of its new neighbors this week with a plan to hold a two-night summer fundraising concert for as many as 10,000 people and 2,200 cars parked on Katama Farm.
The institute officially moves into the historic town-owned farm tomorrow.
The Edgartown conservation commission, which controls Katama Farm and signed a 10-year lease with the institute for the land only two months ago, will hold a special meeting on Wednesday at 6 p.m. to vote on the request.
FARM Institute, the novice non-profit dedicated to bolstering the
Vineyard's agricultural heritage, is putting its first Island home
up for sale, planning to surrender a foothold in the storied Herring
Creek Farm.
The transaction will help bankroll the institute's vision for
neighboring Katama Farm - a 190-acre spread that the town of
Edgartown turned over to FARM Institute this spring.
Complaining that Edgartown officials turned a deaf ear to their appeals to limit operations at Katama Farm, a group of four Katama residents will go to court Tuesday - pleading with a superior court judge to evict the FARM Institute, newest tenant of the town-owned farm.
After a period of lying fallow, Katama Farm will be traditionally
farmed again. The Edgartown Conservation Commission on Wednesday night
agreed to lease the historic property to FARM Institute.
Their decision brings the 180-acre farm back into the Island farming
community. It also allows FARM Institute the opportunity to expand its
role of helping young people learn the ways of agriculture.
Ask most kids where their eggs, beef and milk come from and
they'll tell you the grocery store. Ask the same question of the
young people who have spent a week at Herring Creek Farm and
they'll answer differently: "It comes from a farm."
