08/13/2025
Amen
$250,000 for a single acre. That is what developers are offering for my farm. At first glance, it sounds like a dream. But for me, it’s a reminder of the pressure closing in on farms like mine. Our land sits in a place they call a “land shortage” area, where open fields are quickly disappearing to make way for houses and shopping centers.
My farm is 313 years old. For the past 92 years, my family has cared for it, just as three families did before us. We’ve worked these fields through good harvests and bad storms, trusting the soil to give back what we put into it. Developers visit often, talking about how many houses they could build here. But they don’t see the history, the sweat, the long nights, or the generations of love that are rooted in this ground.
Farming is not easy. It demands everything from you—your strength, your patience, your hope. Yet it’s a life I would never trade. There is a quiet joy in planting seeds, caring for them, and watching them grow into food that feeds not only my family but my neighbors too. Even in the hardest years, when nature works against us, farmers rise again with a new season ahead.
As the New Year begins, I want to ask you to add one more resolution to your list—support your local farms.
Here’s how you can make a difference:
• Cook at home more and let farm-fresh produce guide your meals.
• Buy a farm share through a CSA and invest in your local growers.
• Choose milk from nearby dairies.
• Visit farmers markets close to your home or work.
• Spend a day at a farm and meet the people who grow your food.
Once farmland is developed, it’s gone forever. The only way farms can survive is if their communities stand with them. Every choice you make at the market is a vote for the future you want—one that keeps green fields, fresh food, and hardworking farmers alive.
Let’s make that future possible. Choose local. Eat local. Support the hands that feed you.
