Know your farmer: Locally sourced food trend buoys Maine farms

PHOTO / Amber Waterman Gloria and Gregg Varney co-own Nezinscot Farms in Turner, the first organic dairy in the state of Maine. Not only is it a working and educational farm, but the Varneys also operate a store where they sell bread, canned goods and homemade cheese.

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By Lori Valigra

There's a road down the middle of Nezinscot Farm in Turner. On one side sits the state's first organic dairy dating from 1993, which sells wholesale to the Organic Valley cooperative and pulls in upwards of 65% of the farm's income. On the other side is a retail store selling the farm's value-added products like canned goods as well as meats, breads, vegetables and goat and cow cheese.

The two sides symbolize the expansion farmers have been making the past couple decades from their primary foods. They are selling differently, and adding other goods to make ends meet.

“The big change for us came when we acknowledged that we couldn't continue farming conventionally, getting paid by the 100 pounds of milk and being controlled by outside investors. We never knew how much money we'd get each month,” says Gloria Varney, who with her husband, Gregg, is the third generation to run 270-acre Nezinscot Farm.

In 1993 the farm got a U.S Department of Agriculture grant to look at organic production, and discovered it already was farming organically, so it switched to selling through organic channels. “We now have two big markets in New England via Horizon and Organic Valley,” she says, and a steadier stream of cash.

Though she says she loves farming, Gloria admits it's a hard, 24/7 lifestyle. That's reflected in federal data. Fewer than half of Maine's 8,173 principal farm operators list “farming” as their primary occupation, according to the USDA's most recent 2012 census. The majority, some 4,209, list “other.”

Gloria, who is originally from Livermore, is a third-generation farmer like her husband Gregg, who bought Nezinscot Farm from his father, who bought it from his father. “Gregg and I are unique in that we're both on the farm,” she says. “Ninety five percent of the time the wife is working off the farm to pay for the insurance and overhead.”

For Gloria, farming isn't just a way to pay the bills. “I encourage people to look at agriculture as a way of life,” says Gloria, who also teaches farming courses at Bates College. “I take 28 kids and influence them, show them a different lifestyle and create a memory that will stay with them forever. It's education by doing.” The farm's name, Nezinscot, is from an Abenaki word meaning “to descend upon,” as when the students visit the farm. The students have interpreted it to mean “a place to gather,” according to Bates' website.

Even with the generational experience and love for farming, it's not an easy nor lucrative living on a medium-sized farm like Nezinscot. “We gross more than $1 million,” she says, but is quick to add that doesn't make her family millionaires. “We net $42,000. It's all about the overhead.” Most of the farm's income goes back into machinery, running the farm and feeding the animals, including upwards of 120 cows as well as 30 goats, chickens and other animals.

The store sells seven types of organically raised (but not organically certified) meats, as well as antiques and gifts. The store also hosts retreats and workshops.

Knowing where your food comes from

Gloria is a bit of a health fanatic, having community health education and physiology degrees from the University of Maine at Farmington. “I work on a farm helping people get healthy,” she says. She started with the yarn shop at Nezinscot, and as customers walked by the chickens and sheep, they became curious about farming. Now she teaches classes in the two-floor old barn that also serves as the shop, sharing how to make fresh bread, cheese and canned goods.

But first and foremost, she puts up healthy food for her family. She's also very aware that non-farmers are more concerned about the quality of the food they buy. “Is it better for you if it's organic and traveled three days or if you can buy it from a local farmer who doesn't use pesticides?” she says. Knowing the local farmer's growing methods can help consumers make healthier choices.

Common Ground Fair, the Kneading Conference, the Artisan Bread Fair, farmers markets, farms running community supported agriculture programs, food co-ops and even locally sourced food in large supermarket chains like Hannaford all fit into the big picture of locally sourced food. Also potentially helping is Greater Portland's designation in the spring as part of the Obama administration's Investing in Manufacturing Communities initiative, which aims to give sustainable food production programs priority consideration for $1.3 billion in funding from several federal agencies. And in August, the USDA Rural Development office's Value-Added Producer Grant program awarded $25 million across the country, including $471,000 to five Maine food producers: Farming Fungi LLC in Springvale, Apple Acres Farm in Hiram, VitaminSea LLC in Buxton, Maine Fresh Sea Farms LLC in Bristol and Marble Family Farms in New Vineyards.

What the term “local food” means still is up for debate. The Maine Food Strategy 2014 Consumer Survey Report found that of 600 Maine households surveyed, 61% considered “local” to mean from Maine, while 19% considered local meaning from their county, 9% from New England and 6% from their own town. Two-thirds of households said they buy local food to support farmers, fishermen and other businesses. Almost all households surveyed spent some money on locally grown or produced food, with the majority, or 41%, spending up to $50, while 58% spent more.

That's good news overall for Maine farmers like the Varneys. Maine once again is bucking a long-term downtrend of farm growth across the country. The USDA census also found that the number of farms across the country fell 4% to 2.1 million, but in Maine, the number of farms rose by 38 and the acreage by more than 100,000 from 2007 to 2012. In addition, Maine's crop value rose 24% during the five years to about $773 million. Maine leads New England for the total number of farms with 8,174 in 2012, then Massachusetts with 7,755 and Vermont with 7,335.

Within those statistics are some interesting numbers. Of the 8,176 principal farm operators in Maine, more than half are male, but some 41% are female, and that figure is nudging up. The average age of farmers is 57, but 650 of the farmers are age 34 or younger, and the numbers of that group of farmers have risen nearly 40% over the past five years, according to the USDA. The amount of land in farms also has increased 8% in Maine to around 1.45 million acres.

And on a national basis, 144,530 farm operators reported selling products directly to consumers totaling $1.3 billion, up 8.1% from 2007. Organic sales are growing, but still make up less than 1% of U.S. agricultural production. And farms with Internet access rose to close to 70% in 2012 from 56% in 2007, according to the USDA.

Gloria Varney says the Internet and social media have helped get Nezinscot Farm better known, and while she'll sell an occasional item from a special website request, for now, the store remains the center of retail sales. If her daughter, who recently graduated from the University of Maine at Orono, decides to get more active in the social media aspects of the farm, Internet sales may follow in the future.

But she adds that some growth showing in the USDA and other farming numbers reflects niche marketing, including from home gardeners who get organic certification. There also is a question of how seasonal versus year-round workers are counted in farming: some farmers come to coastal Maine for the summer to work on acreage held by wealthy landowners like the Rockefellers, so they essentially work on farms where they need not pay overhead and can make a living at farmers markets, she says.

The big picture

For the Varneys, there are many aspects to the larger view of farming. Starting in city farmers markets, she says it's just not about buying in the tented areas in cities. “In the city farmers markets, the farmer can be within a 10-mile radius of you. So what do you do to help keep them in business?” she says, adding that joining a community supported agriculture operation, offering to weed at the farm and getting closer to the food source all are needed. When you are picking off tomato hornworms for hours, then the $5 you pay for [a small bucket of] tomatoes doesn't seem like so much.”

And since cities will be hit first and hardest by food shortages — think of the food deserts in Detroit and elsewhere — it makes sense, she says, for cities to plant raised garden beds on empty land.

But the biggest challenge, she says, is for consumers to get the big picture, that is, that the government is supporting or encouraging a cheap food system, and farmers don't get paid what they need to survive. Her farm has tried to buffer itself against both by selling its milk wholesale and beefing up its value-added retail.

In 10 years, she expects the farm to downsize a bit, but produce more value-added products.

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