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Community‘Buy local’ is new mantra for farms facing uncertainty
Initiative kicks off this weekend
Friday, July 18, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN
Lisa Stelacone, left, and Becky Weavill, co-workers at the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home, select some sweet corn last week at the farmers market next to the Charlotte Hall library.
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Toward that end, local governments have issued a ‘‘buy local” challenge, which begins tomorrow, July 19. Here are ways area farmers and growers are stepping up to face that challenge and making tough decisions about their future in agriculture.
Growing painsin the pocket
Production prices doubled for farmers over the winter due to the increase of petroleum costs because fertilizers are petroleum-based, said Joe Sickle, owner of Farm Valley Nursery and Landscaping in Huntingtown. Sickle said he is a fifth-generation farmer in St. Mary’s, and converted his Indian Bridge Farm years ago to growing trees, shrubs and perennials.
Sickle still sells produce at the family’s stands on Indian Bridge Road, but said he was discouraged in the wholesale prices he encountered at the auction in Loveville.
‘‘The cost of producing and farming is going one way, and the people’s ability to pay is going the other way,” he said. A local farmer told Sickle that this year he paid $5,000 for fertilizer and pesticide for 15 acres of corn, and last year he paid $3,000 for the same amount.
‘‘So you can see what’s going on there,” Sickle said.
Over the generations, Sickle said, his family farmed field crops, vegetables and raised cattle, and now he’s worried that his son may not be able to continue the family tradition.
In Calvert County, Trott’s Fresh Farm Produce has a premier farm-stand location on Route 4 in Dunkirk that sells flowers starting in March and then switches over to seasonal vegetables. The biggest problem this year was what to charge for vegetables, owner Winfield Trott said. The farm began in 1971 and is owned by Trott, his nephew Franklin King and grandson Joe Bylan.
Trott said he paid $460 for a ton of fertilizer in the beginning of spring, and it was $260 for a ton last year. ‘‘I bought a ton [in June] at $518. Do we pay 2008 operation cost, then sell for 1999 prices?” he questioned. ‘‘That doesn’t work.
But I don’t think the people are going to stand that much of an increase. Our customers have been very, very loyal these past 30 or so years.”
But customers now have to save their money for gas to go to work, he said.
If the price of fertilizer goes up next year the same way it did this year, the only option is to quit, he said.
Getting a boost
The Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission’s mission is to help preserve agricultural lands. The commission has incentive programs for farmers and promotes local products. It publishes guides and brochures educating the public on supporting local farmers.
In its ‘‘Buy Local Challenge,” the commission is asking residents of the three Southern Maryland counties, along with Prince George’s and Anne Arundel, to pledge to eat at least one item from a local farm every day from July 19 through July 27. And if every household in Southern Maryland spent $12 per week on local produce for a period of eight weeks, this would result in more than $54 million going directly back to farmers, the commission says.
The commission boasts the advantages of buying local in its ‘‘So. Maryland, So Good” campaign. The commission’s executive director, Christine Bergmark, said when buying local ‘‘you get better, fresher tasting food – what could be better than a sun-kissed tomato, fresh from the vine? It’s also safer.”
Locally grown foods are also more nutritious, as they have not been shipped countless miles and stored for days or weeks, she added.
The ‘‘Buy Local Challenge” started in Southern Maryland and is now a statewide initiative. Many stores support local farmers and buy their produce wholesale to sell to their customers.
Former Maryland agriculture secretary Hagner Mister, who still farms, said buying local is good for the farmer and consumer, who gets a fresh healthy product.
Mister said he has seen increases in his operational cost, having paid $760 for a ton of fertilizer this season. ‘‘It doubled from last year,” he said.
Many Southern Maryland farmers are still in transition from farming tobacco, and it’s been difficult, he said. ‘‘Tobacco was the main crop here for 300 years. And within two years it was gone. I never would have believed that it would happen,” Mister said.
Mister is referring to the 1998 tobacco buyout, in which 94 percent of the tobacco producers in Maryland agreed not to grow tobacco, according to the local agricultural development commission, in exchange for payments spread out over 10 years. The soil in Southern Maryland is acidic and made for tobacco, and when growing vegetables the soil needs to be more alkaline so fertilizers need to be added to obtain the right pH level, Mister said.
Along with higher-priced fertilizer, the weather can also impact farms. Last year was one of the driest seasons ever, said Joe-Sam Swann, who grew up on his family’s Swann Farms in Owings.
‘‘The silent partner [of the farm] is Mother Nature.” His farm has spent a lot for irrigation, so it has been able to survive droughts, he said.
‘‘Our quality has been our savior,” Swann said. There’s no match for vegetables picked one day and eaten the next day, instead of languishing in a container for a week while being shipped, he said.
Keeping it in the family
Swann Farms relied on tobacco for generations, and began switching to fruits and vegetables beginning in the late 1970s, starting with watermelon and then peaches, and then found a steady market selling sweet corn wholesale, Swann said.
Joe-Sam’s father, Allen ‘‘Sambo” Swann, ran the farm during the transition from tobacco as they continued to grow more varieties of vegetables in the late 1990s.
‘‘My father is looking to slow down,” Joe-Sam Swann said, so he was invited last year to come back and farm. Farming brings a sense of community, he said, adding neighbors have helped with the farm during harvesting for generations. During the busy harvest season, Swann said they hire seasonal and migrant workers and all the family and friends help, too.
‘‘Farmers help each other as well,” Swann said.
Mister knows the Swann family well, he said, but he’s worried that the younger generation won’t be able to make a living farming in Maryland. The Swann family has a nice setup, but people starting out today wouldn’t be able to afford the land or the operating cost of farming, he said.
Middleton is a familiar name in farming in Charles County. Generations of Middletons have farmed the land, mainly growing tobacco, since the days of the early settlers. Middleton farms have made several transitions over the years, with brothers, Greg, Thomas and James all playing roles in the family tradition.
Greg Middleton of Middleton Produce sells locally grown fruit and vegetables at his farm stand on the corner of Route 5 and Forest Park, about five miles south of Waldorf.
Maryland Sen. Thomas ‘‘Mac” Middleton (D-Charles) operates Middleton Cedar Hills Farm, a tobacco farm that has morphed into other arenas.
In the early 1980s, while still growing tobacco, the farm ventured into pick-your-own vegetables and strawberries, Thomas Middleton said, but in the mid-1980s the business was falling off so they discontinued it. The farm also raised cattle and poultry, while continuing a business in selling hay as well, he said.
Thomas Middleton said raising hay was tough last year because of the drought. ‘‘There’s always a challenge in farming and people like a challenge. The main challenge is the weather,” he said.
His children, daughter, Kelly Bryant, and son, Bret Middleton, want to continue in the farming tradition, but need the business to be profitable for their families, he said. With the cost increasing, it’s going to be difficult for them to make a profit, he added.
His children started an agritourism business on the farm two years ago and take children on farm tours with a petting zoo, hay rides, pumpkin patch picks. During the school year, teachers bring students to the farm as well for $6 a person, he said.
Thomas Middleton’s farm transitions with the season and the times, and he said the holiday season has turned the farm the best profit with Christmas trees.
The support from the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission has helped with promoting his ‘‘come-to-the-farm” days and buying local turkeys, he said, noting he is pleased with the assistance it provides.
