Time To adapt

By BECKY NELSON
Bramblings
The crazy hot day in the 90-degree range earlier in the week had us all gasping for breath and running for air-conditioned comfort. Too much too soon. It takes a few days of warmer weather for my body and habits to adapt. Acclimation to sudden daily climate change, or even gradual climate change is a process, and we just weren’t yet ready for the blistering heat. 

With nights in the 40-degree range the rest of the week and daytime temperatures in the 70s, the hot day was an anomaly that was tough to take. The cool temperatures and relative lack of rain here in late spring are tough on plant-growing attempts. The crops that we have planted in the hoop houses are doing fine, the raspberry and blueberry crops look phenomenal, and the grass for hay is growing beautifully. The seeds in the ground are coming slowly. They all went into the soil later than we hoped, but with soil temperatures too cool to promote germination and growth, it was wiser to wait for warm weather than to risk losing the seed completely if planted too early. We have germination and growth, but crops are going to be late. Pea plants are tiny, and bean plants, squash and cucumber plants have yet to brave the weather and show up, so all will be later than we would like.

The delay in crop growth requires adaptation. As a follow up to my sadness expressed in last week’s column about the closure of farms, I want to reaffirm our commitment as a farm business to adapt and change. We regularly discuss what is working and what is not and how to adapt to new regulation, insurance or financial pressures as well as glitches in growing and selling products. The pressures seem even more intense recently than over the last few years, however. Whether that is a product of our own aging and looking toward providing for ourselves in looming “retirement years,” recovery from what may have been unwise financial or product costs or investments, adjustments to both of us farmers relying on farm income as our sole bread and butter, or trepidation about an uncertain future or a combination of all, we are currently scrutinizing our modus operandi and looking for better, more profitable and current market production.

We have a lot of ideas on the table and are going to slowly implement the best of them over the next several months and years. We don’t plan on closing up shop, and we don’t plan to hide in a hole and ignore the need for change. We plan to adapt. We will probably err on the side of caution, may make a whole lot of mistakes, and may struggle to keep up, but we hope to keep striding forward. Unlike some aging farmers who have no one in the family or circle of friends and colleagues who plan to keep the farm a viable business after their retirement, we have family members who have expressed sincere interest in keeping the heritage, the farm and the “culture” alive and thriving.

Challenges present themselves every day to farmers. Financial pressures with low commodity prices and higher prices for supplies and utilities are a never-ending source of angst. Customer resistance to the higher prices charged for farm products and the competition of bigger and perhaps more efficient farms and retailers make selling products at an amount that can support a farmer on a small or medium-sized farm a never-ending challenge. Despite best efforts to explain and legitimize higher prices is a frustrating and often impossible challenge for the little guy, explaining the biggest reason for small to mid-size business closure. With the cost of employment, insurance, systems to meet regulation, utilizes, fuel, machinery, service and supplies creeping up and up on a regular basis, it is imperative to raise prices to meet the “back story” of growing food, and consumer resistance to paying a dollar or two higher per pound for meat or produce is a deal-killer and a farm-killer in many cases despite knowing where the food was grown and knowing it did not get shipped in a plane or a train or a truck, exposed to who-knows-what kind of contaminant.

There are many definite advantages to paying a few more dollars for locally produced food. It is fresher and didn’t get shipped from parts unkown. You can see the farm or talk to the farmer about production and harvest practices. It will taste better, not losing quality and flavor in shipping and processing over many miles and many days. You are supporting a local family when you buy from a local farmer, even several families as friends or neighbors may be employed by the farmer. You are helping a farmer keep their land open and working and beautiful instead of selling or developing as housing or commercial property. You are making a commitment to preserve a heritage, a vital part of the community, a culture of service and caring, values and humanity. Now, more than ever, it is imperative to shop locally, to eat locally, to harvest locally if you are concerned about preserving remaining farms and open spaces in our increasingly commercialized and urbanized New Hampshire neighborhoods.

I hope that all of my my farming friends and colleagues find a way to carry on, to find a way to pass the farm on to younger folks willing and eager to perpetuate the legacy, to adapt, to survive, and to thrive and make a decent living. I know that realistically, many, many small and mid-sized farms will continue to close or at the very least change focus. I pray for them and ourselves to be able to refocus and change and adapt. And I will continue to grieve every time I learn of a farm closure.