Farm Aid, Farmers and Fires

We don’t have vast thousand-acre farms in New England, but of the farms that we do have, 85 percent are family-owned. New England is home to vibrant farmers markets. There's  an active localvore community. And our small farms grow everything from tomatoes, sweet corn, apples and cranberries, to a budding viniculture segment.

So it was gratifying that Farm Aid, which is actually based here in Massachusetts,  held its first concert in New England in its 23-year history this weekend. I was a guest blogger for the folks at Farm Aid, offering my impressions of the event here and here.

But on Saturday, right about the time Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders was rocking the sold-out crowd of 20,000 concert-goers, a farm tragedy was unfolding nearby. Thick clouds of black smoke enveloped the farm stand, offices and kitchen of one the area’s most vital farms – Verrill Farms - and it took local firemen nearly four hours to extinguish the blaze, leaving only the building’s blackened ribs.

Steve Verrill and his family have been on their land in Concord since 1918. The farm was started by Steve’s father. Verrill himself was a dairy farmer for years, but traded that in for vegetable farming when the dairy industry got downright unprofitable. He was one of the first local farmers to connect directly with Boston’s best chefs, and his produce is regularly listed on menus by name. His name. I hear he’s even got a hefty waiting list of chefs with produce-envy.

The Verrill family likes a party. They hold a strawberry festival, an asparagus festival, a blueberry pancake breakfast and pie eating contest; a tomato and corn festival and half-a-dozen more events every year. Thanks to them, this farm is where thousands of children and their parents very likely connected with their food for the first time, and have continued to doing so for generations. And that tomato contest I judged last month? Steve was the one that got the state to include heirlooms as a category. Before that, there wasn’t one.

I feel confident Verrill will rebuild and thrive. His impact on people in the region is huge, and his customers understand that it is crucial that Verrill and his farm survive. He’s fortunate, despite the fire.

While I applaud Farm Aid’s longevity and efforts to raise awareness of the critical role farmers play in our country, I can’t help but feel discouraged that there have been 23 years of Farm Aid concerts and fundraising, and yet things are still dire for so many of our nation’s farms. Still, at least one in-tune group is fighting the fires -- as well as the floods and failures of our farmers.
– Clare Leschin-Hoar

Image: Willie Nelson at Farm Aid, photo by Paul Natkin/Photo Reserve Inc. 2008

Comments

[Jen]

Clare,
It can be discouraging to think that despite 23 years of work, farmers are still often on the brink. But that's the nature of farming; disasters like hurricanes, floods, fires--they happen and you can't plan for them. The important thing is that we recognize that without farmers, we're all in trouble. That's much of the work we do at Farm Aid. Farmers like the Verrills are at the very center of our communities. When we recognize that, we can rally around them in times like these to support them...to pay them back for the support they've given us through their friendship, community, and good food!

[Farmer Troy]

Hi Sam,
I have attended two Farm Aid Concerts, the 10th Anniversary show in Kentucky and the one in Pittsburgh (my home turf) a few years ago. I can't remember which show it was (I think the 10th Anniversary Show) where the board (Willie, John and Neil) were saying the same thing about not being able to solve the problem. I think it was Mr. Young who said, "we'll probably be doing this till we die" or something along those lines.

Farm Aid is something I have always supported (I've even been a "Farmyard" member), but as a farmer myself, they do not offer direct support to farmers, which I do not agree with . . . they give their money to other organizations who then filter help (trickling down) to the farmers. This is kind of a bad deal in my opinion. They should be supporting farms not other farming organizations.

Just my opinion, Farmer Troy

[Clare Leschin-Hoar]

Hi Troy, I believe that's the business model they set up when they formed Farm Aid, though I could be wrong on that. (Maybe Jen can come back on and comment on that?)

Funding individual farmers would likely deplete Farm Aid pretty quickly, but funding local groups that are in direct contact with farmers offers a farmer-in-need expertise + funds. It's a path that puts the farmer in touch with a grassroots organization that can adress their specific needs using additional local resources.

I took a look at Farm Aid's tax return here: http://tinyurl.com/4sqvzu

Their funding isn't as huge as you might think. By giving $5,000 grants to different farming non-profits, I do believe they can make that money go further than by issuing a direct grant to the farmer. But like you, I am struck by the fact that after 23-years of fund raising too many of our country's farming families are still teetering too close to the edge of financial ruin. Once those farms are gone, they are gone forever. ~~Clare

[Wondering, too...]

The situation with Verrill Farms might serve as a catalyst for Farm Aid to have some sort of mechanism that, while keeping their focus on organizations and supplying resources - an admirable goal, to be sure - allows for some sort of direct assistance to farmers. Our government has decided that, in the interest of economic security, there are banks too big to fail, maybe Farm Aid could do something similar in the sense that it could provide direct assistance to a farm deemed "to important to fail" in a region, or at least use it's media and PR reach to emphasize the plight of farms like Verrill, who are, by all accounts, really a place that is too important to fail. That way, there isn't necessarily a direct drain on resources, the plight of the farmer is highlighted and potential for help exists, and Farm Aid is also identifying a standard by which important farms can be identified when it creates the criteria by which a farm might be deemed too important to a region to fail.

[Sam Fromartz]

I think the "too important to fail" would be tricky, since who gets saved and who doesn't? Kinda like the difficulty in crafting a bailout package on Capitol Hill.

I think the current structure has merit, for it is local approach. It ties farmers to groups working in the community. If Farm Aid tried to disperse aid on its own, its staff would balloon and it would become unwieldy. Plus, local groups have a greater sense of what's going on, what's needed in a particular region and what the best use of resources is. That might leave some farmers behind but it is much closer than working with a distant organization.

My 2 cents.

[Integrative Nutrition]

The potential for help does exist. A great thing that is happening with local farms, especially on the East Coast is a lettuce farm in Maine called Locally Known. We think they are up to great things. Here is their link: http://www.locallyknownfoods.com/blog/.
They are defying that farming is an old-school, archaic business to get involved in. Farming and local food, we believe, are the keys to building a more sustainable planet for the future.