Organic farms boost regional economy, German official says

BAR HARBOR – Local organic farming, with help from the federal government, can provide a boost to a regional economy as well as benefit the environment, according to a German environmental official.

It’s a model that has worked in a limited way in some sections of his country, said Hardy Vogtman, the German deputy minister for the environment, and one that could work well in New England.

Vogtman was the keynote speaker Sunday at the 13th annual Farmer to Farmer Conference. He and a long list of researchers and farmers discussed production and marketing in Maine during the two-day event.

Much of the governmental agricultural subsidy in Germany and in other large agricultural countries such as the United States goes toward transportation, storage and the destruction of food, Vogtman said. It is a serious problem that will become more serious, particularly in Europe as more countries enter the European Union, he said.

“This is a system that will not sustain itself,” Vogtman said. “As the northern countries come in with their agriculture, we will have to do something. The money will not be there to maintain the same subsidy system.”

The current conventional farming system, which often sells to a global rather than a local market, also has resulted in falling prices for farmers, serious environmental problems stemming from fertilizers and pesticides, as well as the loss of viable farmland and the structures and nature of the countryside, he said.

Government support for organic farming has the potential to counteract some of those effects, Vogtman said. By shifting federal subsidies from conventional farming operations to local organic enterprises, the government can stimulate the local agricultural economy and the overall regional economy as well.

Vogtman’s ministry has been involved in several such projects in the past several years, including one in a small village whose only dairy was purchased by a large agricultural concern.

Local farmers initially received an extra two cents per pound of milk. But, within a year, the company closed the dairy and shipped the milk to a larger, more cost-efficient facility. The price paid to the farmers dropped by five cents a pound, and many farmers considered getting out of farming altogether.

The federal government, Vogtman said, worked with local officials and provided a 95 percent subsidy to the town to purchase the dairy, which it promptly leased to a group of organic farmers. With subsidies from government departments, the farmers were able to upgrade the equipment and to develop a packaging and marketing plan to sell the milk in a regional market.

“The added value from the farmers came to about 8.1 million German marks into that village,” Vogtman said. “That’s through the farmers, the staff, taxes, energy and utilities, and regional transportation.” That translates into about $4 million.

The farmers wound up getting about 20 cents a pound more for their milk, and the venture created 37 new jobs – 21 in the dairy, six in agriculture, and 10 in related services.

Vogtman cited other examples. One venture not only subsidized what has become a growing livestock cooperative, it also spawned related businesses, including an environmental tourism effort. With new business, he said, came new jobs and more people moving to the rural area, reversing a trend that had threatened the traditional rural lifestyle.

Vogtman acknowledged that there are limitations to such a plan. So far, successful efforts in promoting organic agriculture have been on small-scale farms in the hillside area rather than on more-desirable land where the larger farms are located.

Similarly, in the U.S., government subsidies for organic farms would be well-adapted to the New England area, but probably would not be well-received in the Midwest.

“We’re not looking for all farms to be the same,” he said. “It’s not one recipe for all the world.”