For more than a century agriculture has been moving toward a mass production model. The single-commodity, export-oriented producer such as the potato farm in Aroostook or the Midwestern wheat farm has been the prototype. Summer farmers’ markets make this an ideal time to talk about alternatives. Mainstream economists argue that the shape of agriculture is determined by consumer choices. Yet public policy and economic power play a major role in the direction of our agricultural economy.

One can go to a grocery store any time of year and purchase a plastic container with four or five tomatoes for a fraction of what one would have paid years ago. Before we clap too loudly, however, we should look at the history of those tomatoes. Many are now grown on commercial farms in Mexico. Environmental regulations, though inadequate even in the United States, are weaker in Mexico. If poor pesticide regulation has implications for tomatoes and workers in Mexico, the consequences could also be passed along to consumers and taxpayers in the United States.

Tomatoes are shipped to Maine by truck. Energy economists would agree that even the high price of today’s gasoline fails to reflect the costs of our highway system. Those costs include police and fire protection, the damage that large trucks do to highways and the military costs of such ventures as the Iraq war.

Many of the commercially marketed tomatoes have hard skins. They have been bred for distance travel and machine processing. Commercial farming usually reflects research done by land grant universities under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture. That research is hardly neutral. Much of it is geared toward the development of processes, products and technologies that are beneficial to large-scale farms.

The Center for Rural Affairs points out, for instance, that in the case of poultry production, “Public research efforts have concentrated on large-scale confinement hog and chicken operations. These large-scale operations have put untold numbers of independent family farmers out of business. Research that helps producers find low-cost ways to raise and market hogs and chickens could rescue those on thin ice and put some diversity back in the economic playing field.”

Here in Maine, when tax and zoning policies make it difficult for local farms to thrive, the cost of organic tomatoes rises. Consumers are driven to the industrial alternative. Some may find organic tomatoes so hard to find that they eventually forget about them or never discover that there is a substantial taste difference.

Public policy should put local, organic agriculture on an even playing field with industrial, export oriented agriculture. Former state economist Charles Lawton reminds us that “Maine households spend more than $3 billion on food products every year, but less than 4 percent of that total comes from Maine farms. Maine is not likely to supply the local supermarket with coffee, kiwis and mangoes any time soon, but $2.9 billion still leaves quite an untapped market.”

Lawton argues that the local market is diverse and thus less volatile whereas world commodity markets are notoriously subject to wide price swings. If small Maine farms can produce a variety of food crops, they can both lower their risk and quickly respond to changes in taste. In addition, Maine farmers can capture more of the ultimate consumer food dollar. In national markets, less than 20 percent of consumer spending goes to the farmer. With the state facing a fiscal crisis, even doubling the 4 percent of food dollars here in Maine – worth $100 million – would be a welcome stimulus to the economy.

Land use and taxation policies that might help preserve viable local farms provide benefits beyond food. Rural landscapes make Maine an attractive place to visit. Nor need the preservation of farmland be a barrier to affordable housing if appropriate forms of cluster zoning for housing are established and limits are placed on economically inefficient forms of suburban sprawl.

Research priorities at both the state and national level must be re-examined. Local farms growing diverse crops can both control pests and achieve economies of scope (i.e. ways of connecting crops or crops and livestock in mutually supportive ways). These can be as significant as the economies of scale on big farms. University of Maine agricultural economist Stewart Smith points out, “A number of Maine farms are demonstrating that farming systems that integrate livestock and cropping enterprises reduce the need for purchased inputs, especially chemical fertilizers, and so reduce production costs.”

Most state marketing initiatives have also been devoted to the export commodity market. That market will remain important in Maine. Nonetheless, more state effort devoted to touting the value not only of our lobsters but of our locally grown produce can enhance the value of the tourist experience and assure that more of the tourist dollars stay in Maine and generate more quality jobs.

John Buell is a political economist who lives in Southwest Harbor. Readers wishing to contact him may e-mail messages to jbuell@acadia.net