Glynwood Center has developed a new program designed to help communities identify the many ways in which agriculture contributes to their wellbeing, generate broader public support for local farmers, and develop action strategies tailored to local resources and situations.

Keep Farming: Connecting Communities, Farmers and Food is designed to help communities gain a deeper understanding of the forces impacting sustainable countryside development.  Management and balance between working, conservation, and development landscapes is essential to preserving the vitality and character of rural communities.  Unchecked development of agricultural lands weakens the economic viability of family farmers, the economies of small communities reliant on farm enterprises, and regional food security by making communities more dependent on foods produced elsewhere.

Keep Farming:   Connecting Communities, Farmers and Food helps communities understand the many benefits that agriculture provides to their region and develop strategies to support and retain farming in their area. 

There are three parts to Keep Farming – Organizing for Success; Analyzing for Understanding and Awareness; and Taking Action.

Organizing for Success: The first part is one of organizing, outreach and discussion.  Residents are guided through a process that helps them identify and mobilize the “human resources” in their community, many of whom may not traditionally get involved in agricultural issues – average citizens, politicians, grocers, restaurants, service clubs, schools, non-profits, local businesses, etc.  The organizers will gather baseline information on farming in the region for discussion with the larger community.

Keep Farming builds the knowledge base in the community and encourages all residents to become involved. 

Analyzing For Understanding and Awareness:  Through the Keep Farming program, residents discover the multiple benefits that farming provides to their community by assessing the following key values:

• Economics – The most obvious value of agriculture is that it generates income - products are sold, people are employed and agriculture related businesses are supported.  Additionally, keeping land in agricultural production saves the municipality money because farmland requires fewer services than developed land.
  
  Keep Farming helps the community document the contribution that farming makes to the local economy.
   

•  Local Foods – In a globalized economy where products from other countries dominate grocers’ shelves, the value of maintaining a local source of healthy food is often overlooked.

Keep Farming helps the community pinpoint where their food comes from and how much of that food is produced locally.  It will also help them uncover opportunities for farmers to diversify to meet the demands of local consumers.

•  Natural Resources – Without farming, a community’s natural resources are at risk.  Agriculture protects the local water supply by reducing impervious land cover, naturally purifying rainwater and recharging aquifers and streams.  It keeps the soil rich with important nutrients and biotic elements that are depleted when the land is developed and maintains important habitat and wildlife corridors that support and protect endangered as well as common species.

Keep Farming helps the community learn about their natural resources and understand how these resources are affected and protected by farming in their region.

• Aesthetics – The aesthetic quality that farmland brings to a community is one of the more obvious benefits of agriculture.  Farming keeps the countryside alive.  The rolling hills, green pastures and working farms - with their barns and grazing livestock - provide the scenic views that create a sense of place and preserve rural character.

Keep Farming helps the community identify its important viewsheds and consider the effects of changing land use patterns on the scenic quality of the area.

Taking Action:  Once a community understands the multiple benefits that agriculture provides, it is ready to design a strategy that both protects farmland and supports farmers in the region.  But, where does the community start?  What are the most effective techniques and how can these tools be put together to maximize their effectiveness and best address the needs of the community?

•  Preserving Agricultural Land:  In high and moderate growth areas, the first step in protecting agriculture is to secure the land base and there are a variety of tools that communities can use to preserve farmland.
   

• Keep Farming helps the community understand why certain land use tools work, while others don’t, and explore what techniques will be most effective in achieving local goals.
   

• Creating Economic Opportunities:  Small and mid-sized farms have been challenged for too long by a lack of local markets for their products.  Most supermarkets do not purchase local products because buyers cannot be guaranteed sufficient volume, year round delivery of seasonal produce, or the lowest price.  As a result, farm products in the United States travel an average of 1,300 miles from farmer to table.
   

• Keep Farming helps the community support its farmers in developing new markets for local products and highlights a variety of ways that small and mid-sized farmers can benefit economically by shortening the food chain and linking more directly to consumers and distributors in their region.
   

• Learning from Your Neighbors:  Communities differ widely in the types of agriculture they include and the kinds of growth pressures they are under.  Unfortunately, there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution, but there are many examples of communities, organizations and individuals that have been successful in achieving farmland protection and improving the economic vitality of farms in their region.  These communities and organizations have important lessons to share.
   

• Keep Farming helps the community by providing case studies and practical examples of strategies that have worked in other communities that are grappling with similar issues.

What Is Required of the Community?

Communities participating in the Keep Farming program commit to:

• Convene a Community Agriculture Partnership that represents a cross section of the community and includes all major stakeholders.  This Partnership, along with the help of community volunteers, will be responsible for completing the assessment tools and taking the lead designing an action strategy.

• Gather relevant baseline information about agriculture in the community;

• Conduct the four assessment tools with the help of community voluteers;

• Inform the broader community about the Keep Farming program and its results;

• Develop and implement an action strategy that is based on the finding of the assessment tools and addresses local needs.

What Help is Available?

Communities that participate in the Keep Farming program will receive assistance from Glynwood Center staff including:

• The Keep Farming: Connecting Communities, Farmers and Food workbook, which provides detailed guidance and templates for each step;
   

• Training on organizing the community, conducting the assessment tools and developing a long-term strategy; and

• Ongoing support for the Community Agriculture Partnership and assessment teams as appropriate.

To learn more about Keep Farming in Chatham, N.Y., click here.

To learn more about Keep Farming in Buffalo and Clinton Townships in Pennsylvania, click here.

For details on the Keep Farming program, contact Virginia Kasinki, Program Manager.