Northeast continues to feel impact of Irene

With Hurricane Irene creating serious damage in Vermont, there has been a strong push to help local farmers in their recovery phase. In many places, legislators continue to work to find ways to assist victims of the flooding. The organization of Dine Out Irene, has also been created with proceeds being directed to New York farms that were damaged during the hurricane.

Community Revitalization Project + Farming = Grant Money!

The Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program is currently accepting applications for their Sustainable Community Grant. This grant would need to be used directly towards connecting community revitalization and agriculture. The deadline is October 19, 2011.

A center dedicated to local food education

Lake County, Illinois may soon be home to a local food learning center. The center would cover a broad range of activities from demonstrations to classes. The center would stand as a beginning farmer incubator location, but would also cater to general sustainable agriculture interest.

South Dakota State Fair not all fun and games

The South Dakota State Fair had another attraction this year, other then just their bull bash, fried food, and toe-tapping music. This year, a forum on the farm bill took precedence for many fair visitors.

The city of brotherly love is embracing food stamps

Philadelphia is now offering SNAP users a 40 percent discount when they use their stamps at participating farmers markets. So far, this program has been extremely successful in getting fresh, healthy produce into a large amount of home. This is just another wonderful reason to visit your local farmers market, in Philadelphia.

Farm and Food webinars for all

The National Good Food Network is offering a variety of upcoming webinars on topics such as ‘Technology for Good Food’ and ‘Two Revolutionary Tools for Beginning Farmers’. Their website also provides access to previously held webinars, ranging from ‘Economics of Regional Meat’ to ‘Real Food into University Cafeterias.’

Implications for Agriculture and the 2012 Farm Bill

Jon Scholl, president of American Farmland Trust, discussed the importance of the 2012 Farm Bill and the changes looming because of debt reduction measures. Scholl pointed out that “our country must now make big decisions about the nature of government and how it will spend our money, and agriculture and food policy will be no exception to that rule.”

Increased Opportunities for Rural Communities

The While House recently announced several initiatives to increase jobs in rural communities. The initiatives touch upon a broad range of issues, including efforts to increase job search accessibility and additional support for small businesses.

Farmers Markets: Farm Fresh Food and Jobs

Farmers markets aren’t just great places to purchase farm-fresh produce, they are also helping our local economies and increasing jobs. A report by the Union of Concerned Scientists argues that “farmers markets and—more significantly—‘the local and regional food systems behind them’ can be a significant source of job growth with minimal investment.”

Support your farmers market by voting in America’s Favorite Farmers Market™ contest.

Nation’s Oldest Family Farm Still for Sale but Still in Use

Last year, the Tuttle family announced that they were putting their 378-year old farm up for sale. The New Hampshire farm was the longest-running family-farm in the nation. While the farm is still on the market, new young farmers are keeping it growing strong through a non-profit for farm business incubation.

North Carolina Continues to Protect Agricultural Land

Union County, North Carolina, is the fastest growing county in the state, so news that close to 1,000 acres of agricultural land are being protected there comes as a relief to the community. The Catawba Lands Conservancy, the group protecting the farmland, hopes to reach its goal of protecting 50,000 acres by 2030.

New Social Media Website that Farmers Could “Like”

Too busy in the fields to visit with other farmers around you? Have no fear. A new website and mobile application, cropNation, is hoping to keep farmers socially connected through the new media many are already using.

Farmers Markets Help Make Healthy Food More Accessible

A recent study out of the University of Washington School for Public Health found that consumers often find eating a healthy diet to be too expensive. Nevertheless, of the 41 farmers markets in King County, Washington, more than half accept SNAP cards, making it easier for low-income consumers to eat healthy, local food.

An On-Farm Education

School-farm partnerships in Boulder, Colorado, are helping to teach local students about farming. The hands-on learning experience is also open to families, providing an opportunity for students of all ages to learn about small-scale farming.

Connecting Farms and Restaurants in Montana

The Western Sustainability Exchange, a non-profit based in Montana, is working to connect local producers with local restaurants and other food buyers. These relationships are helping to save time, keep money in the state economy, and encourage a healthier lifestyle for local residents.

Michigan Passes Law to Aid Farmland Protection

A new bill signed into law in Michigan will help raise funds for the state’s Agriculture Preservation Fund. As Rep. Andrea LaFontaine (R-Richmond), who sponsored the Farmland Preservation Law, explained, “The bill is a win-win for farmers and fiscal responsibility.”

Making Community Connections One Meal at a Time

Farm, table and community are all closely connected at Sheppard Mansion in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Thanks to Chef Andrew Little, the restaurant and adjoining inn boasts a 10,000-square-foot culinary garden that supplies 90 percent of the restaurant’s produce during the growing season, as well as a local foods market. In fact, chefs are increasingly becoming part of the local food exchange, purchasing produce and providing vegetable scraps for composting.

Variety is the spice of life, and for some farmers, this means giving consumers an extended variety of the foods they produce. A farmer may choose to can their green beans or make pickles to sell later in the season, for instance. However, the process of turning produce to pickles can take up a great deal of space, time and materials, so it is not always a commercially viable option.

Given the growing interest across the country in locally grown and artisanal food, shared-use commercial kitchens are on the rise. Sprouting up around the country, these facilities provide a place for farmers and others to turn seasonal foods into year-round business opportunities.

If time and ingredients are abundant but space is lacking, plenty of options are available with shared-use commercial kitchens. These kitchens generally provide all the necessary tools needed to create the finished product, such as industrial sized dishwashers, pots, pans, mixers and canning supplies. Typically, all the farmers need to provide are the raw materials and the containers.

The Canning Kitchen in Lecanto, Florida, for instance, provides all of the tools to can favorite recipes—from pea shellers to juicers—and also provides onsite assistance. Kitchen Chicago is a shared-use facility that is conveniently available for use 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If food makers  don’t have the time for the actual kitchen labor, then certain locations—such as Sweet Creek Foods in Oregon—can complete the entire process. All they need are the raw materials and recipe. Similarly, Mission Mountain Food Processing Center in Montana supplies everything from the commercial kitchen to the packaging room to a lab and testing equipment.

These shared-use commercial kitchens can impact a community’s direct economy by providing a space that helps to jump-start small businesses while facilitating the use of locally sourced products. The kitchens also help provide farmers with an alternate outlet for reaching their consumers.

Many beginning food artisans are also taking advantage of shared-use commercial kitchens as a way to launch their businesses. Shared facilities provide the means for small-scale production at a much lower cost for individuals, especially when considering the risks involved in new business ventures. The cost structure for facility use varies depending on the kitchen, ranging from hourly charges to monthly or annual memberships. However, many facilities offer discounts, assistance and even classes on canning, preserving and preparation. Kitchen Chicago advertises that they can even order some ingredients locally for kitchen members, a huge benefit for small-scale businesses that may not have access to a larger scale material market. In Portland, Oregon, Kitchen Cru even provides a small event space for those wanting to test their menu or hold an  event.

Shared-use commercial kitchens are making a strong debut in the state of Georgia, where Shared Kitchens has nearly 80 different clients between two different kitchen facilities. Clearly, the opportunities available through shared-used commercial kitchens are diverse and exciting. Below is a short list of facilities across the nation that provide small- to medium-scale cooking, canning and marketing assistance. Happy productions!

About the author: Delancey Nelson is the market manager of the Lauraville Farmers Market in Baltimore, Maryland. She has worked on numerous farms and vineyards abroad and holds a degree in Historic Preservation and Community Planning from the College of Charleston.

2012 Farm Bill

As U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) continues engaging stakeholders in Farm Bill discussions throughout New York, Darrel J. Aubertine, New York State Agricultural Commissioner, announced that his Farm Bill listening sessions will start today in Syracuse.

Meanwhile, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) was back in his Oklahoma district over the Easter congressional break, holding a series of 14 hearings in various communities.  He rounded out his tour in El Reno, where he told the Oklahoma Farm Report that he would wait until the 2012 budget was settled before trying to craft a farm bill to match.

Tools for the Next Generation of Farmers

The Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri is working on a project that will provide an online resource to beginning farmers and ranchers to help them analyze their business practices as they grow or transition their operations.

In another effort to help beginning farmers, a fellow beginner has partnered with the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture to launch a website that contains profiles of successful sustainable farmers along with information about their practices.

A new documentary, GROW!, offers a peek into the lives of 20 different next generation farmers in Georgia. The film is a collection of discussions with the up-and-coming farmers about their motivations and experiences in getting back to the land.

Topics in Conservation and Farmland

The USDA has just opened a public comment period to improve access to their programs.  The period lasts until May 20, 2011, and will initially focus on Rural Development, the Risk Management Agency, the Farm Service Agency, and Natural Resources Conservation Service.  Comments can be submitted at www.regulations.gov.

An article in The Economist last week posited that the rising cost of farmland combined with the volatile price of crops could lead to a farmland bubble, similar to the 2006 housing bubble from which many Americans are still recovering.

A new two-year report from the California Department of Conservation shows that the slowing in urbanization because of the recession did little to stop farmland loss in the state. Analysts believe water shortages, not urbanization, may account for the record decrease in irrigated farmland.

The Women, Food and Agriculture Network is sponsoring a discussion and field tour on May 12 in Cherokee County, Iowa, titled “Women Caring for the Land.”  The workshop is intended to help the 47 percent of Iowa farmland owners who are women make informed conservation decisions.

The Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute just announced that they will host a global conference to explore the challenge of growing more food with limited water. The conference will be held May 1-4 in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Farms and Access to Healthy Food

You may have heard of Community Supported Agriculture, but what about an Agriculture Supported Community?  A farm in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, has turned the CSA model on its head and offered veggie shares to members of its community on a sliding, income-based scale.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report this week that showed 32 states and the District of Columbia ranking at or below the national average for level of family access to healthy foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables, in their communities.

The Fayette County Buy Local Network in Pennsylvania celebrated its first anniversary last week.  The network offers cards to county residents, which are honored with discounts at about 100 local businesses, including the county’s four farmers markets.

The Coastal Conservation League, a South Carolina nonprofit, is building a wholesale distribution center where businesses will be able to buy produce that is grown within 100 miles of Charleston. GrowFood, as the center will be called, intends to eliminate the barriers between the producers and wholesale buyers of local food.

New rules implemented by the USDA’s child nutrition programs will allow schools to give preference to locally grown and raised agricultural products when buying food for federally subsidized meal services.

At farmers markets across the country, Americans are in search of fresh, healthy food. What they also find is an opportunity to connect with farmers and ranchers and strengthen the local economy. More and more, farmers markets are helping to make healthy food available to more people.

A look at the numbers help to paint the picture of the unique benefits associated with farmers markets.

6,132: The number of farmers markets reported by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service in 2010 – a 16 percent increase from 2009!

59.4: Dollars in millions that Iowa farmers markets contribute to the state’s economy.

10x: The amount of food Arlo and Janice could have bought at the farmers market instead of growing their own.

Arlo & Janis: © United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

2012: When the USDA projects that consumer demand for locally grown food will reach $7 billion.

37.8: The percent of vendors that have been selling at farmers markets between 2 and 5 years, according to a study conducted by Farmers Markets Today.

25: The percent of vendors at markets surveyed in USDA’s 2005 farmers market survey that derived their sole source of farm income from farmers markets.

1,000,000,000: Sales at farmers markets were slightly more than $1 billion annually in the USDA’s 2005 National Farmers Market survey.

263: Percent growth in the number of farmers markets and direct marketing farmers accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits over the past five years.

1,889: The number of new jobs the Michigan based study Eat Fresh Grow Jobs, estimates could be created if state leaders adopt recommendations to increase fresh fruit and vegetable consumption.

7.6: The density of farmers markets per 100,000 people in many rural counties (see Economic Research Service “chart of note”) – indicating that many rural counties have greater per capita availability of farmers’ markets than urban counties.

This is one in a series of posts highlighting the four winners of our summer long America’s Favorite Farmers Markets™ contest.

Farmers often have a personal connection with their local public markets. Whether it’s the interaction with neighbors-turned-customers, or the added boost in revenue, regional markets offer a unique place for food producers to sell their goods. For market president Lonny LeFever, the Champaign County Farmers Market in Urbana, Ohio, is more than just a welcome location to sell his produce. It’s a reminder of what’s really important in life.

The market is nestled in the historic section of Urbana. Held every Saturday from May to October, the Champaign County Farmers Market is a vendor-operated market in the truest sense. Every board of director member must be an active vendor, and the five-year plan calls for adding a second day to the market’s schedule, eventually using a permanent structure to hold a market five days a week.

But for now, customers have a wide assortment of produce and hand-crafted goods to purchase. The first market was held in 1998 and was relatively unorganized, with most vendors selling corn and tomatoes. “I didn’t plan on becoming president,” LeFever recalls, ”but my mind was made up that we needed a good farmers market since we lived in an agricultural community.”

In 2008, the board of directors for the market decided to create a five-year plan. They started a “buy local, eat local” branding campaign, and managed to attract and retain about 28 vendors. LeFever says vendors take pride in their products, and the community and local government shows a great deal of support to their local market.

The market tries to cater to the underprivileged residents in the county by accepting EBT Tokens and WIC. “We serve the whole community, not just the people that have the money to do it,” LeFever says. “We keep prices competitive to local stores.” The market also helps boost outside business. Visitors will drive into town, fill up on gas, eat downtown and purchase delicious food from the many family farmers.

“We are located in an area where some people struggle and many people are just trying to survive,” he says. “The unemployment rate is terrible. Bringing EBT and the WIC program into our market, it enabled us to grow our business, and people who were left out before can come to the market and purchase good food.”

Winning a top award in America’s Favorite Farmers Market means quite a lot to LeFever. “It made me feel good,” he says. “I worked very hard to get it to this point, but I never thought we’d get this.” Since winning, the community is alive with support for their local market.

LeFever spent much of his early life in Champaign County, so he is very familiar with the agricultural nature of the region. But at 16, when he graduated from high school, he moved away from home to try to make a life for himself away from his small hometown. A diagnosis of liver cancer brought him back home years later, and he says having cancer made him realize what’s really important.

“We’re all given challenges in life,” he says. “You can either lie down and let them run over you, or you can say no, I’m not going to let that happen—I’m going to live.” Now at the age of 58, he’s been diagnosed with cancer four times, but each time he’s dug deeper to survive. Farming and the Champaign County market has certainly kept him busy, and helped him live a simpler, more focused life.
Perhaps it’s the positive and welcoming atmosphere of the market that provided some extra strength during some hard times for LeFever. People come to the market, local restaurants bring hot coffee or ice tea, and customers end up sticking around to visit with their neighbors.

Vendors at the Champaign County Farmers Market are like a community. “If you are a bit late, you’ll have a fellow vendor helping you set up,” LeFever says. “The whole goal is to provide local, quality food. We try to educate people about where their food comes from and explain why our products last longer and have better nutrition. We stay very involved with our community and always try to make sure the customer comes first.”

Enjoy these great comments from farmers market supporters from across the nation! Send your market some love by leaving a comment of your own. And if you haven’t voted in the America’s Favorite Farmers Markets or told all your friends to vote, do so today because the contest ends August 31^st at Midnight EST!

This market has heart. It was the result of a community planning process where a diverse group of locals voted to start a Farmers Market.  It has grown each year and had diverse local food such as seaweed, berries, fish, oysters and of course garden vegetables. The market takes place in the historic Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall camp #1 and bring out huge numbers of Native and Non Native people. This is one of the most unique and most community building markets in the country.
~ Doug, Alaska

My market is the best community market because the farmers know me and know what I like to eat.  The farmers have a personal connection to the people they are selling to and greet you by name.  The market manger is always moving around and connecting with the public and the farmers. He has great free recipes which give me a different way to use what is at the market. I love seeing friends at the market and visiting in the comfortable, welcoming market atmosphere. It also makes me feel like I am doing something good for my self, by eating right, helping local famers and see in my friends.  This is the best market ever!
~ Duon, California

Locally grown food (including organic and heirloom produce), friendly venders, and various community activities make our Farmer’s Market a fun, nutritious destination.  In an area where housing tracts and shopping centers are replacing groves of fruit and nut trees it is reassuring to know that people are still using their land to provide healthy food for our population.  A fresh ripe garden grown tomato is better than a candy bar any day!
~ Mary Jane, California

I love my farmer’s market for a few reasons. 1) The growers do an outstanding job of bringing to the table fresh slow food. 2) They have jumped through tons of red tape to include the citizens who shop with food stamps. So all of our citizens can eat healthier, and support our local growers. 3) The farmer’s market is more than just local food, it is about our neighbors relating with each other. People talk, and smile to each other. Our local farmer’s market brings our community together in a basic fundamentally human to human level.
~ Lisa, Georgia

1. Variety of vendors: organic fruits & veggies, beautiful cut flowers, cheese vendors, fish monger, poultry farmer, bakers, coffee roaster, more!  2. Meets twice a week: Friday mornings and Monday afternoons, giving more people a chance of buying local.  3. Welcoming to families: the Friday morning market often features puppet shows or other entertainment for children, encouraging families to bring their children to market where they are exposed to farmers and “real” food.  4. Samples – on occasion, the vendors provide samples of their food for tasting. I bought haloumi cheese because I was able to taste it (LOVED it).  5. FUN!!
~ Katherine, Maine

I enjoy shopping here each week over the summer. The freshly picked produce is delicious and nutritious and I am glad to be able to support local farmers. It’s a wonderful sense of community.
~ Susan, Massachusetts

Our town is small with only 2 grocery stores,, the Farmers Market allows us to have “Real” fresh vegetables with out the packaging and chemicals that we are reduced to accept from the stores. The Market organizers are there every week to talk to the customers and the vendors bring the best they have to the markets.  The prices are usually less than the stores and we can hardly wait for Saturday to come around to enjoy the best tasting fruits and veggies of the week.
~ Linda, Michigan

Amazing selection. It has such a carefully curated selection of foods. I love the care and respect for the land that the farmers that sell at this market have. It inspires me to eat locally sourced food.
~ Brian, Missouri

Supporting local farmers, as well as the small businesses and artisans that so prevail our beautiful country is vitally important. Farmer’s markets present us with the healthiest, freshest way to do this. To get a real peek at what America really is all about, all you need is to leave the concrete jungle, and make your way to your local farmer’s market.
~ Joshua, New Mexico

I love the location of the market on the water and under cover!  I love that all the food sold there is grown or prepared locally.  I love that we can come to know the farmers and where our food comes from! I love that I can get to the market in 5 minutes on my bicycle! I love that in this town, kids not only know what tomatoes and potatoes look like in their whole fresh form, but many recognize the PLANT that the tomato and potato come from as well!  (referring to Jamie Oliver’s show from W. Va. where school age kids could not identify whole fresh tomatoes or potatoes!)
~ Marilyn, New York

Because we have just started our market and we have the most friendliest and good hearted people in this little ol town. Everybody helps everyone and knows each other and has really enjoyed this farmers market that we have come to love!!! We need to win best market to get the word out and draw a bigger crowd from out of town.
~ Paula, South Carolina

I love that the vendors are the actual people producing the meat, vegetables, and fruit. They’re always happy to answer questions and talk about the produce. I’ve gotten a few really good recipes and ideas about preparing produce from the farmers. It’s the very next best thing to having a huge garden at home!
~ Terri, Texas

My grandfathers all were family farmers with small gardens. Some of my great grandfathers had larger farmers. Most of my family lived long lives 80′s, 90′s, 104 years old. I feel it was due to growing their own foods and fishing the local waters. We look forward to the farmers markets in the summer to buy as much local grown produce as we can. I now can alot of our food we eat in the winter, like my g-mothers before me. My g-grandmother (lived to be a 104) always told me, it comes in a box it will kill you. I respect and appreciate my local farmers. Save Our Farms!!!!
~ Charlene, Virginia

Note: We will attribute these comments to the markets that they are associated with when the America’s Favorite Farmers Markets contest comes to a close on August 31^st at Midnight, EST.

This is National Farmers Market Week … a time to celebrate the colorful and flavorful bounty of fresh produce that is so important to a healthy diet. This week there is wonderful news to celebrate because today the USDA just announced that farmers markets have grown 16% in the last year to 6,132 markets nationwide. But for many Americans, access to a balanced and nutritious diet is limited by a host of political and economic factors – from food deserts to farmland conversion.

In June, two important publications were released to help promote the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) in farmers markets. The Farmers Market Coalition and Community Food Security Coalition’s Real Food, Real Choices: Connecting SNAP Recipients with Farmers Markets examines the need for improved access to farmers markets in underserved communities and outlines a “Roadmap for Change.” A complementary guide resulting from a joint project by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA Food and Nutrition Service and Project for Public Spaces, Inc., Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at Farmers Markets: A How to Handbook, provides a comprehensive guide for farmers markets to serve more members of their communities.

I am very hopeful about how people and communities are embracing local farms and farmers markets resulting in the impressive growth of markets across the country. I am also excited about the role of several key organizations who are supporting farmers markets with staff

and resources, such as the Farmers Market Coalition and the Wallace Center at Winrock International, who just released a new YouTube channel and Farmers Market Manager and Organizer FAQ to answer key questions about how to start a farmers market and expand access to markets.  While the farmers market movement is growing by leaps and bounds, it is constrained by policy barriers at levels of government.  One way to push back is to vote with your fork by supporting local farms and farmers in farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture (CSA)s, U-pick and other direct markets, and by demanding healthier food in school lunch programs and college cafeterias. But it’s also important to get involved with your community to make sure your city or town is “farm friendly”, and to fight for policies at the state and at the federal levels. Right now two pieces of legislation are pending that improve access to healthy food: the Child Nutrition Act and the Greening Food Deserts Act and the First Lady has taken a strong leadership role with her Let’s Move campaign.

But we can’t bring about our vision of healthy farms, healthy food and healthy communities without saving the land that sustains us. USDA estimates that we don’t grow enough fruits and vegetables in this country to ensure a healthy diet for all Americans – a situation exacerbated by the fact that the vast number of our fruits and nuts (91%) and vegetables and melons (78%) are grown in urban-influenced areas in the path of development. They estimate we need another 13 million acres of fruit and vegetable production to meet the nation’s minimum daily dietary requirements with domestic production.

This summer, American Farmland Trust is celebrating the role that farmers markets play in supporting the farms and farmland necessary to grow healthy local food. You can support the food revolution – voting not only with your fork but also with your vote in America’s Favorite Farmers Markets™ contest.

About the Author: Julia Freedgood is Managing Director for Farmland and Communities at American Farmland Trust.

Tracking down where your food comes from, or understanding your food shed, was the topic of a contribution to The Herald-Mail from UMD Extension educator, Jeff Semler. Although embracing AFT’s “No Farms No Food” message, he offers additional suggestions to consumers to be more effective with their purchasing power.

Conservation efforts by farmers in the Upper Mississippi River basin are making progress, found a recently released USDA report.  Sediment loss and pesticide runoff are both down as farmers in the region embrace effective conservation practices.  However, the study concluded that more work needs to be done, particularly in addressing runoff of nitrogen fertilizer.

A story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch highlighted the growing field of agroforestry.  This integrated farming approach encourages a more multifunctional use of land and can be both environmentally conscious and financially lucrative.

One Champaign, Ill. goat farmer is fighting to protect local farmland from a damaging road project. Read more about her struggle to preserve urban-fringe farming in this feature from The Chicago Tribune.

The National Milk Producers Federation has outlined its recommendations for changes in federal dairy policy in its “Foundation for the Future” approach. The plan includes safeguards against financial pressures, programs to address changes in milk production and demand, and reforms to the Federal Milk Marketing Order program, among other recommendations.

Farm Aid has released a report that recognizes the impact of families in growing and strengthening farms and food systems.  This analysis of the American economy gives a unique look at the central role farms and farmers have had and will continue to play in national economic development.

Urban farming for profit was the subject of a story from last week’s Seattle Times. According to the article, the production of food in cities is expanding the definition of “local” while at the same time bringing the food closer to home.

To close out this week’s update there is good news in the area of farmland preservation.  Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection received 36 applications looking to protect 9,400 acres of farmland in its first call for Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easement funding. In Pennsylvania, the state’s long-standing protection program celebrates its 15,000^th acre of preserved farmland. What a great milestone for farmers and agricultural supporters in the Keystone State!

And of course, the America’s Favorite Farmers Markets™ Contest is underway- don’t forget to share some love for your market by casting your vote today!