This Williamstown dairy is in active production – but what if it weren’t?
Berkshire Grown seeks to put farms and farmers together
Under the rubric of “More Farms, More Food,” Berkshire Grown is exploring ways to help start-up farmers overcome one of their greatest obstacles, the high price of land in the Berkshires.
The Great Barrington-based group has convened a committee of farmers and representatives of groups such as BNRC, The Nature Conservancy and local land trusts to explore the challenges and opportunities of agricultural matchmaking.
From all appearances, this should be easy. There is increased demand for locally grown produce and value-added products in the region; there is, anecdotally anyway, a new wave of growers seeking to supply that market demand; and there are landowners up and down the county who own land but aren’t equipped to farm it—or even manage it—themselves.
But to sustain an operation, a farmer needs more than land: She needs good soils, irrigation, truck access, a washing and packaging building, a farm-stand and—the backbreaker—maybe a place to live.
Landowners, for their part, want to know that a would-be farmer has not just heart, work ethic and agricultural chops, but a sound business plan and the capital to get it off the ground.
Landowners or growers who think they may have one side of the equation in hand are encouraged to call Berkshire Grown’s executive director Barbara Zheutlin at (413)528-0041.
Resource Report is published by the Berkshire Natural Resources Council
20 Bank Row, Pittsfield, MA 01201. (413)499-0596 info@bnrc.net |
