HADLEY — In its fifth year operating from leased property, Many Graces Farm & Design is growing 240 types of cut flowers on about half of the 8½ acres it rents, some in open fields and others inside greenhouses.
The farm has found success on the Lawrence Plain Road land owned by Winter Moon Roots, continuing to maintain growth even through the pandemic, increasing to a dozen paid staff by making a pivot that included opening up new wholesale channels, and securing loans from the National Resources Conservation Service for installing high tunnels and buying a tractor.
As founder Rebecca Maillet and managing director Kel Komenda embark on eventually migrating the farm to land in Amherst where they live and have a three-year lease, the couple is pushing for the 2023 federal farm bill to have provisions that benefit start-up, younger farmers, including those who don’t own their own land.
On a recent afternoon, Maillet, who began growing flowers to honor her late friend Ruth and pushing boundaries of what it means to be a specialty farm, and Komenda, who joined the enterprise in 2020, provided a nearly two-hour tour to U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern and numerous other federal officials so they can better understand their circumstances, especially the difficulties farmers face when leasing land.
Komenda is one of 100 fellows selected nationally, and the only local farmer, who is part of the One Million Acres campaign led by the National Young Farmers Coalition. In the 2023 farm bill, the coalition is asking for a $2.5 billion investment over the next 10 years so there can be equitable access to buying farmland as it changes hands.
Younger farmers like Komenda and Maillet note that they are unable to buy farmland because it is too expensive in the region, causing some to leave farming due to these high prices and inability to secure land.
The push comes as nearly half of all farmland in the United States is expected to change hands in the next 15 years, according to the American Farmland Trust.
“Older farmers are not finding ways to get land to younger farmers,” Komenda said.
Komenda said having this federal investment would benefit both young farmers, as well as farmers who are part of the Black, Indigenous and people of color, or BIPOC, communities.
Without more access, Komenda said, there are also risks of losing good farmland. In fact, the land they are using in Amherst, off Pomeroy Lane and known as the Poor Farm, had been under threat of development into a 14-home subdivision. There, the property owner was unsure how to return the site to agriculture uses for the first time since the 1970s.
Komenda and Maillet quickly found out the challenges they are facing, including a significant number of rocks in the soil.
“This project has turned into a much bigger project than we envisioned,” Komenda said, describing the process as intimidating. “It’s going to be a many years process to get this space into farming shape.”
“This project is exciting on a foundational level,” Maillet said of their efforts to get the land into shape for row crops on a site that previously had farm animals.
While many farm programs are available to landowners, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has helped them procure a 1994 Toyota pickup truck and two storage containers, Maillet said the next farm bill should create a program for long-term renters by making access to land easier.
Maillet and Komenda explained some of their difficulties of not owning the land they are currently farming. For one, because they are renting land that’s a piece of a larger farming property, they can’t irrigate on their own schedule during dry weather.
Another issue, Komenda said, is how much are they willing to invest in a property they are leasing. Being in a rental mode tends to limit resources they put into the land, though they have been willing to build a studio for processing the flowers and also reclaimed other space that was of no use to the landowner.
McGovern applauded the farmers for how they are using the land. “I’m a huge fan of what you’re doing here,” McGovern said. “I wouldn’t have the guts to do this.”
McGovern said he and other elected leaders have to figure out creative ways to help small farmers, including ones using regenerative practices, and how to reimburse them for expenses they have as renters that landowners don’t deal with.
The National Young Farmers Coalition is also arguing that land should be protected from larger, corporate agriculture for the health of the planet. “We may be the last generation of farmers who have the ability to affect the climate crisis,” Komenda said.
At the Poor Farm, McGovern assured Komenda and Maillet that he will do what he can to get appropriate measures into the next farm bill.
“We want this to have a happy ending,” McGovern said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
