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Family Farming: The End of an Era
After 378 years and multiple generations, the Tuttle family farm in Dover, N.H. is up for sale. Founded by English settler John Tuttle, who arrived in the New World in 1632 with a land grant from King Charles II, the farm has been passed down through the generations, and has been billed as the country’s oldest continually operating family farm. After years of hard work, and dwindling demand for the crops he produces, 63-year-old Will Tuttle has decided the family legacy will end with him. “This is a different business now,” says Tuttle, “Farming at any level is a labor of love, but now the future is so uncertain. Looking forward, I don’t see much opportunity for small farms to thrive. It’s a tough grind.”
Although the Tuttle farm is protected by a conservation restriction that prohibits it from being developed after it is sold, high land values and suburban sprawl make it increasingly challenging for small farmers to hold strong. “A lot of people won’t drive a few extra miles for fresh vegetables,” said Michelle Tuttle. “They are going to Wal-Mart and Target and trying to save whatever they can, and we don’t have the buying power to compete.”
Many small-scale farmers, like Morse Pitts of New York’s Hudson Valley, also struggle with rapidly changing zoning areas. In Pitts case, his town recently rezoned the area surrounding his farm land as industrial. If he wants to cultivate soil that’s not surrounded by industry and its potential for water and air pollution, Pitts would be forced to move. Yet like many other small independent farmers, he can’t afford to.
Aside from the standard instability farmers must endure; bad weather, pests, disease, and the inconsistencies of the market, independent and organic growers face other great but often overlooked economic hardships. They must shoulder far higher production costs than their conventional counterparts when it comes to everything from laborers to land. Without meaningful support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, their longevity hangs in the balance. President Obama and secretary of agriculture Tom Vislack are attempting to nurture sustainable, small-scale farming while still showering billions on industrial agriculture. Growers who’ve gone the chemical, mechanized route have ready access to reasonable loans, direct subsidy payments to get through tough years, and crop insurance, plus robust research, marketing, and distribution resources. Organic and holistic growers who raise crops, or grass-fed, free-range livestock, must contend with circumstances made harder by a USDA rigged to favor industrial agriculture and factory food. As Ben Lilliston of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis puts it, “Obama said he wants to double exports in the next five years — when he’s talking about ag exports, he’s talking corn, soy, commodity crops. How can you do that and still support sustainable ag? You can’t.”
Unless the current administration decides to truly support small farmers, the future of small American farms looks bleak. Unconventional operators continue to rely on inherited land, free and low-cost labor, and off-farm income. But if all that fails, they’ll have no where to turn. Morse Pitts is not the only farmer who sees no other option than to sell his land and transition to something else. “Turns out,” he writes, “my dream of leaving a farm for the next farmer was kind of silly.”
