In 16th annual farm tour, state and federal officials look to ‘continue full-throttle support’ for agriculture

Congressman Jim McGovern got his sneakers dirty at farms and other branches of the agricultural systems of Hampshire and Franklin counties on Wednesday during the first day of his 16th annual farm tour.

After starting his day at Mapleline Farm, a dairy farm in Hadley, McGovern and a crew of state officials and employees at local organizations related to food and farming met Jim Thomas and Laurie Cuevas — the “dynamic duo” running Thomas Farm & Dairy in Sunderland, as McGovern described them.

Cuevas broke down the farm’s operations, including its farmstand, award-winning goat cheese and goat curds, and team of around 200 goats. To feed them, the couple grows their own hay, a task made easier by the region’s “coveted soil.”

As opposed to the Berkshires, where tending to the soil requires harvesting rocks, according to Cuevas, in Franklin County, “it’s just beautiful, fluffy soil, and it grows things like crazy here.”

“This is the best of the best,” she said.

At Thomas Farm & Dairy, every goat has a name, which leads the barn to house a lot of “retirees,” as Cuevas described.

“A real farmer would send their animals … to the auction and they would become part of the food chain, the food system, but we’re really bad at that,” Cuevas said as the farm tour attendees chuckled. “If you see any especially crusty, maybe a little rib-y looking [goats], those are the grandmas in there and they just stay, they die here with their friends. That’s just how we are. That’s probably why we have 200 goats.”

McGovern and the crew of officials and local food system workers crowded into the barn to meet the goats, from the babies to the 12-year-old “grandmas,” after Cuevas pointed out the farm’s new milk bottler and pasteurizer, paid for using a Food Security Infrastructure Grant through the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR).

“Farms need to see continued support and good policy from our state and federal partners, and so having those legislators and administrators come out on the farm is pretty essential to see and understand the needs of farmers,” said Kelly Coleman of the South Deerfield-based Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). “You now have a way to visualize what the needs are, so it’s a full, rounded story with people involved, and also you can retell that story to your peers so you can build support for change and policy that way.”

After the group petted the goats and took pictures of the animals greeting them and chomping hay, McGovern and other officials lined up to taste the farm’s signature cheese curds and goat cheese spread on crackers.

“People come here for the cheese,” Cuevas said with a smile.

Next, the congressman checked out another step in the local food chain — distribution. Nick Martinelli, founder and CEO of Marty’s Local, gave McGovern a tour of his warehouse, where temperatures drop to as low as -10°C in the freezer room.

According to Martinelli, Marty’s Local delivers food from 160 farms and food producers, including those in western Massachusetts, which make up about two-thirds of the company’s pool of suppliers.

From the fields, barns or kitchens to the grocery stores or cafeterias of approximately 100 school districts and other final stops, Marty’s Local aims to ensure that the original source of the food remains tied to the product and clear to the consumer.

“They know they’re keeping dollars in the regional economy,” said Martinelli, adding, “When I know the source of something, I’m more likely to trust it.”

Produce and other products like dairy products, granola, chips and other snacks fill the shelves of Marty’s Local, labeled with the name of local producers like Bardwell Farm in Hatfield and Plainville Farm in Hadley.

At the last stop of the tour in the back of the warehouse, McGovern said he is worried farms will fold in the face of rising expenses like fertilizer costs.

“In the short-term, the way they can combat that is to give them a bigger market in which they can sell their products and make more money,” McGovern said. “You provide them the ability to do that.”

“If we can allow a farmer to plant an extra 5 acres, 10 acres, or hire three more people, that’s really exciting for us,” Martinelli replied.

Along with businesses like Marty’s Local providing fresh food to school districts in the state, McGovern said he hopes schools educate students on the food’s journey to their cafeterias “to understand what good food is and what nutrition is all about, and the importance of supporting local businesses and local farms.”

“I like the stories behind the products and the farms,” he continued.

After a quick lunch, McGovern met Jaap Molenaar and Arjen Vriend, who run Pioneer Gardens in Deerfield. There, McGovern and other state officials stepped inside the greenhouse, where around 200 plant species grow.

At each stop, McGovern asked those running the businesses how the federal government can be the “wind at [their] backs.”

MDAR Commissioner Ashley Randle, a South Deerfield native, said the answer she hears from farmers is often improvements in infrastructure, which the Food Security Infrastructure Grants can help fund.

State Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, added that the FARM Bill addresses several types of support local farmers need. The bill proposes several investments in farming and efforts to fight food insecurity, including codifying the Food Security Infrastructure Grant, prohibiting local zoning bylaws from blocking agritourism, and permanently codifying the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) and the Farm to School program that gives farmers a financial incentive to sell their produce to schools. The Senate passed the legislation and it is currently before the House Committee on Ways and Means.

“This is a good news tour, and there’s a lot of good news in Massachusetts, but if we want to ensure that these farms that we’re visiting today and these businesses that we’re visiting today are here tomorrow, we have to continue full-throttle support of this sector,” Comerford said, adding that approaching every state investment through the lens of supporting farms is important. “It is the right time to pass [the FARM Bill] with farmers facing the crises that they are. … It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when, and the when has to be this session.”

Randle said in-person visits, like McGovern’s farm tour, play a key role in making state and federal support for farmers possible.

“It’s one thing to send an email or be on the phone, but when you’re directly on the farm or in a warehouse seeing the challenges, but also the opportunities for both investment and technical assistance, that’s where you can have the best and most candid conversations,” Randle said. “Seeing is understanding.”