Mainers work to secure future of food, farms

In Maine – from Kittery to Fort Kent and Fryeburg to Eastport – a multitude of small and large greenhouses have cropped up over the past 15 years. Some of the greenhouses are exclusively horticultural businesses, others are components of diversified family farms.

The green industry has become the fastest-growing segment of agriculture in Maine and in some other New England states. Greenhouses and related industry businesses hold much promise for the future. They represent the changing face of agriculture throughout our state, nation and world. They have provided each of us with the highest-quality, luscious seedlings in spring or fresh produce in winter. But for many families across this state, the production of greenhouse crops is an important means of sustaining the family farm through troubled times.

A few days ago, I was listening to the radio and I heard an ad for Archer Daniels Midland.

ADM is one of four major corporations that control the supply of food from seed to supermarket shelf. ADM has used the slogan “Supermarket to the World.” Now they have changed that to “The Nature of What’s to Come.”

Archer Daniels Midland capitalizes on one of the biggest challenges facing agriculture in the future – that is, globalization. I listened to its claim to be “The Nature of What’s to Come,” and after thinking about it for a while I think ADM is ignoring the full potential of what family farms have to offer the future of our county, state and nation. Archer Daniels Midland may be capable of feeding the world, but is it as capable as small farms are of ensuring Maine people and fellow Americans real security?

Globalization expands the scope of what we might gain, but it also increases the stakes of what we stand to lose.

Global trade has brought prosperity to some nations and companies. But it has widened the economic gap between agricultural producers, forcing midsize farms to get bigger and more specialized or to pare down and become more diversified. Globalization leads to lopsided development that favors big business.

Some family farms in Maine have suffered at the hands of an economy that has embraced globalization. Greenhouse growers work their fingers to the bone trying to secure a market share against the importation of cheap Canadian bedding plants. Producers have dumped tons of the most beautiful berries I’ve ever seen because they can’t attain a fair market price. Beef producers struggle to fill competitive niches while imported meat from Argentina floods the market.

We should be outraged. There are many ways that public policy maintains and encourages the prosperity that comes with production agriculture and big business. Now may be the time to fortify the security that comes with a diverse, widespread network of small family farms.

ADM may believe it represents “The Nature of What’s to Come,” but really the nature of what’s to come is, in a word, change. In fact, farmers today are living in a revolution of change. The production of agricultural food and fiber is affected by fast-changing technology, highly competitive and variable markets and unprecedented regulation. They also are witnessing a social revolution, a movement within society that is focusing on domestic security and national priorities. This focus was sharpened Sept. 11.

In the coming months, a public dialogue will continue to play out as we seek to secure our national food system. I believe family farmers – and the greenhouse producers among them – will emerge as consumers’ “money in the bank.” As we participate in this dialogue, and as we shape public policy that directly affects farming and greenhouse production in Maine, let’s keep in mind the simple sentiment expressed on a bumper sticker, “No farms, No food.” I would add to that by saying, “No farmer, No farm.”

Farm industries in our rural state are all intertwined and interdependent. What we do to one, we do to all. We must carefully contemplate the effects of policy pertaining to suburban sprawl, taxation and land conservation. We must assure that there is opportunity and profitability in agricultural and horticultural businesses.

And we must think into the future, predicting change before it’s upon us.

Diana George Chapin is the NEWS garden columnist. Send horticulture questions to Gardening Questions, RR1, Box 2120, Montville 04941, or e-mail them to dianagc@ctel.net. Selected questions will be answered in future columns. Include name, address and telephone number.