| FEBRUARY 2009 -- Happy new year from your Agriculture Committee. We met at the Pink Sash meeting on November 22 to start the new year. As a committee we decided to have Sunflowers as our yearly Ag project. More to follow in the Blue Book. If anyone has suggestions about Agriculture, please let your committee know about it.
Governor M. Jodi Rell says the state will bond 5 million for farmland preservation. Funds are expected to buy development rights for 10 more farms in 2009. This summer with high gas prices driving up grocery prices, people found some relief with locally grown food, thanks to the Farmer’s Markets. I wish they had this farmland preservation program when I sold the land across from our house and I would be looking at one house and one the size of a castle. Jerry Tanner in Warren just sold 50 acres to Farmland Preservation. Good for him. I have been told we are losing 6,000 acres a day to development. A lot of this land is around towns and cities. Another thing we should think of is the water in the ground.
I hope this country thinks about finding the people if we keep losing land and also the average age of the farmers in this country is around 60 years of age.
National Grange leaders met with Barak Obama’s transition team and one thing the Grnage wants all future trade agreements to recognize the need for more international support to grow food for needs of their own people and to stop giving money to farmers that don’t need it. |
