By RUDI HEMPE
CELS News Editor and Reporter
URI’s Cooperative Extension created Rhode Island FarmWays. One branch of the effort offered a professional development series, free to RI farmers. At the three sessions, presenters provided farmers with advice on how to improve their business through agri-tourism and direct marketing. The last one featured a panel of marketing, public relations and branding experts urging even the smallest of farms to let the world know they exist. One tool suggested was a web site (only a couple in the audience had one) and to create the message, the farmers were told that each and everyone of them had a story to tell.
Other suggestions were to have a sign-up list for notifying customers of future events and sales and to take steps to probe the growing interest among young parents who want to provide a back-to-the-earth touchstone for their children.
FarmWays is also setting up a speakers bureau and will train speakers and help them prepare their presentations.
Agri-tourism is big on Nunnery’s agenda. He came to Rhode Island from Pennsylvania where agri-tourism is big and brings in extra income to farms who offer such things as added-value products (not just berries but berry pies), tours, hayrides, mazes and demonstrations.
Manic Contrast
“More than ever before, people are looking for ‘on-the-farm experiences,’” said Nunnery.
Another initiative is Campaign 2010, A Garden in Every School, whereby the intent is to set up gardens at 10 schools initially. The program is funded by a $280,000 grant from the nursery producers program and will involve the URI Master Gardeners.
“Gardens should be a part of children’s education,” said Nunnery, who added that the garden sites have to be continual not just one-year projects.
Nunnery noted that Rhode Island farmland is priced at about $11,000 acre—the highest in the country. “The challenges ahead to preserve what we have are daunting. We’re happy to be part of a number of service providers.”
RI Small-Scale Farm Technical Support Project
This project is funded through USDA- CELS for the next two years and will survey a large number of farms in the state to determine their needs. The ultimate aim is to come up with a program to assist farms.
Although the title of the project suggests small farms, the program is aimed at all farms.
Ernest Morreira, a URI Cooperative Extension specialist, is the principal investigator for the project who says the small farmers in the state have been underserved for years.
Hired as sustainable agricultural specialist is Whitney O’Hanian, who just finished her graduate work at URI.
“What distinguishes this from other projects is we just don’t know what technical needs are desired,” says Morreira. There is the suggestion, he adds, “that people want the university to get more engaged with farming and get those farms on a sustainable and profitable path.”
At the end of the two years, that path should be a lot clearer.
Farm Fresh Rhode Island
This innovative non-profit was started by Louella Hill, a dynamic Brown University graduate who wanted to increase community-wide access “to more healthful, more meaningful, more socially and environmentally just foods.”
Farm Fresh Rhode Island was created with the Division of Agriculture, Brown Dining Services, the Center for Environmental Studies at Brown, the RI Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as partners.
Hill says the mission of her group is to link farmers and buyers in order to build a sustainable food system. |
Farm Fresh manages seven farmers’ markets in the state and its FreshLink service lets farmers tell restaurants and food services the quantities, pricing and delivery logistics for what is fresh in their fields each week. Its website informs people where they can obtain the crops they seek.
Hill, a native of Arizona, came to Rhode Island to get her degree in environmental studies and has decided to stay. According to her website, “Her dream is to not have even one tomato climb on an airplane or a semi-truck bound for a RI dinner plate. She hopes one day everyone will not only know their farmer but perhaps have a plot of heirloom tomatoes in their own backyards as well.”
The R.I. General Assembly and EDC
When agriculture was the only major business in Rhode Island, the General Assembly was probably filled with working farmers but today there is only one—Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski of South Kingstown.
LOUELLA HILL, a Brown University graduate, directs Farm Fresh Rhode Island, a non-profit operation that intends to foster links between consumers and local farming operations.
A Democrat from District 37, Sosnowski and her husband, Michael, run an organic farm providing vegetables, and herbs. They also raise sheep, chickens and turkeys.
Sosnowski doesn’t inundate the legislature with pro-farming bills. Rather she picks and chooses which proposals that in her estimation “will make a difference.”
Her most visible bill to date was the so-called “pie bill” which allows farms to prepare and sell value-added foods such as pies. Today many of the state’s farms have or plan to have certified kitchens on their premises.
The “pie bill” is one of those pieces of legislation which allows farmers to pursue accessory uses on their property. “Other states in the Northeast are much more lenient than Rhode Island,” says Sosnowski.
As an example, she questions why farm stands have to comply with the stringent regulations that apply to full-fledged restaurants. “We have to make some regulations that are not so bureaucratic,” she said adding a “tiered” system of regulations might work.
Among the bills Sosnowski is working on now is one that would allow farmers to retain their equity once they sell their development rights. The equity is important when a farmer applies for aid.
Another bill would exempt greenhouses from local taxation. Polyhouses are temporary buildings but if some farmer wants to build a glass greenhouse (which are more efficient) that type of more permanent structure should be tax exempt as long as it is used for agricultural purposes, says Sosnowski.
While the mood is pro-farming in the state, Sosnowski says it is still tough to get farming bills passed when there are so many other constituencies.
She remains optimistic about farming and gives lots of credit to Michael McMahon, executive director of the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) who has recognized agriculture as a major part of the state’s economy.
“The only way farms are going to survive in an urban state is the one-on-one contact between farms and their customers,” she said
“People for the most part respect the traditional forms of agriculture. People want to get back to the roots,” she said.
She recalls addressing a group one day and asked how many farmers were in the audience. One or two hands went up.
She then asked “How many want to be farmers?” A forest of hands appeared. “Everyone is a wanabee farmer!”
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