Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company  
The Boston Globe
January 7, 2002, Monday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: METRO/REGION; Pg. B1

LENGTH: 980 words

HEADLINE: FARM BILL APPEALS TO SPRAWL FOES CONGRESS EYES EXPANSION OF PLAN TO KEEP LAND OPEN

BYLINE: By Anthony Flint, Globe Staff

BODY:
A farm bill expected to be taken up when Congress reconvenes this month has brought together two groups in Massachusetts that have often been at odds: small farmers struggling to stay in business and environmentalists fighting sprawl.

The unusual alliance hinges on a version of the bill that provides more money for small farmers to resist the temptation to sell their land to developers. Some farmers and environmentalists see expansion of the farmland conservation program as a way to support New England agriculture and preserve open space in the process.

   Lawmakers were unable to agree on an aid package before their Christmas break, in part because farming conglomerates in the Midwest and South don't want any funding diverted from traditional subsidies that help producers of corn, wheat, rice, and cotton.

Kathy Melnick, co-owner of a 650-acre dairy farm in Deerfield, said the farmland conservation component is a more effective and targeted way to help farmers not involved with those so-called commodity crops, while at the same time preserving the New England landscape.

"Dairy farming is a tough business, and there's been a lot of development pressure here," she said. "It's a beautiful area. It would be a shame to see houses on it, a shame to see these wide-open spaces developed."

Under an existing conservation initiative in Massachusetts known as the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program, the state bought the development rights on 400 acres of Melnick's Bar-Way Farm at a price that was roughly equivalent to what a developer would pay for the land. In exchange, the land must now always be used for farming.

There are not enough funds in the program to accommodate all the farmers who want to participate.

The Senate version of the farm bill to be debated in Washington would increase federal funding for such programs to $1.7 billion from the $250 million currently set aside. Only $35 million of that has been appropriated so far. The $1.7 billion would be part of a 10-year, $170 billion farm package.

Environmentalists have found common cause with small farmers such as Melnick because the bill would prevent farmland from being sold off for subdivisions.

Activists have also pushed for additional incentives to get farmers to use the land in a more environmentally sensitive fashion.

"If you care about the traffic you sit in, the quality of the water you drink, or you hunt or fish, you have a personal stake in how this farm bill comes out, and whether US farm policy will be reformed for the first time in decades," said Mike Casey, spokesman for the Washington-based Environmental Working Group, an organization that has been advocating for the farm bill.

The changing nature of farm politics is also spreading awareness about agriculture and land use, Casey said, because only a handful of states now benefit from billions in subsidies, and the new bill would share the wealth.

"This farm bill is the first time that rural and suburban New England has a real interest in the outcome," he said.

Senator John F. Kerry, cosponsor of the Senate version that calls for more conservation funding, said anti sprawl groups and open-space advocates have helped form a critical mass of support for reform.

Conserving farmland, he said, also makes more fiscal sense than the current subsidies flowing to large agribusinesses, which result in artificial price supports and, in some cases, farmers being paid not to grow crops.

"This is a way of keeping the farmer on the land, without doing things that are counter to the marketplace," Kerry said.

"If you pay someone to give up their long-term rights through a conservation easement, it's a long-term, sustainable investment, a better investment for the taxpayer."

Kerry said the current system of farm subsidies is "absurd" and "a reflection of lobbying and big money interests in Washington and who can move the process."

Passed five years ago and signed by President Clinton, the last farm bill, called the Freedom to Farm Act, was an early attempt to address such concerns, reducing funding under the decades-old farm subsidy system.

But lawmakers then passed supplemental bills to funnel more aid to farmers, prompting critics to call the original measure the "Freedom to Farm Washington" or "Freedom to Fail" act.

There is a renewed effort to reduce overall subsidies this time, but Democrats such as Kerry and Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont are focusing efforts on the conservation component as a way of redirecting funds to small, family farms. Congress reconvenes Jan. 23 and action on the farm bill is expected shortly thereafter.

The conservation component is closely tied to quality-of-life issues in New England, said Jerry Cosgrove, Northeast regional director for the American Farmlands Trust, a farm preservation organization that has joined efforts with antisprawl groups. "The alternative is, this land gets developed," he said.

Bob Russell, co-owner of Russell Family Farms and Westport Rivers Vineyard in Westport, agreed.

"Farmers eventually are going to sell out to developers because in our society, it's viewed as the highest and best use," he said. "It's hard to ask a farmer not to sell when they're being offered $10,000 an acre. On the other hand, most farmers want to stay in farming. They're in a bind."

Russell, who also participated in the state Agricultural Preservation Restriction program, said preserving small farms is good for tourism, the economy, and the local tax base, because subdivisions require more in services than they produce in taxes.

"People have forgotten where all wealth originates from - natural resources," he said.

"As time goes on, we'll become more aware of farmland, as it becomes a precious commodity."

Anthony Flint can be reached by e-mail at flint@globe.com.

LOAD-DATE: January 7, 2002