If you love our rural heritage, you can help keep it viable
I grew up in West Virginia, but I've always been a "townie."
I had classmates who lived on farms, but not too many. The boys from the farms were particularly conspicuous; in elementary school, they wore cowboy boots and plaid shirts. In high school, they wore FFA jackets.
But the family livelihood for most of us came from the chemical plants along the river, and with only a few exceptions, my closest friends were townies, too. So there was a lot about farming life we didn't know about.
I wasn't completely ignorant of agriculture, however; my father grew up on a farm in southwestern West Virginia, and I spent a lot of summer days there with my grandparents when I was a small child.
It was the only place where I could play in the dirt with impunity (but only when my mother wasn't present). My cousins and I drank water that had been pulled up from the well in a bucket. We would stretch out on the grass and roll down the bank toward the creek, my grandfather having thoughtfully installed a small fence that kept us from rolling into the creek.
We played hide-and-seek in the smokehouse and sat on the porch on summer evenings, listening to the crickets and sipping "pop" or stringing beans. And in the morning, we were awakened by my grandmother's rooster — and my grandmother in the kitchen preparing breakfast on her wood-fired stove — as the sun filtered through the curtains.
But by the time I reached high school, those days were past. Age and health issues had forced my grandparents to sell the farm, my family had long since moved to a different part of the state, and we all settled into different lives. My classmates in the FFA were good people; we just didn't have much in common.
And then I ended up here — where at some point, everybody who worked on the news side of the paper was expected to cover events at the annual Ag Expo.
To be honest, I didn't exactly relish the assignment at first. But I quickly grew to appreciate the efforts and contributions made by the farming community here, which have been a staple of the local economy since the county was founded.
I watched the youngsters who lived on farms their families had occupied for generations as they proudly showed off their livestock, grinned at the antics of young animals flitting around the grounds, admired the produce and observed the camaraderie among our farmers — and remembered all over again why it all matters.
So by the time my nieces decided to participate in the FFA when they were in high school, I was all in.
According to the county's Department of Business and Economic Development, we have nearly 900 farms on approximately 120,000 acres — almost half the county. And that's despite the fact that farming can be hard, challenging work; work that many across the country have forsaken.
It's no secret that there's been a growing tension between certain kinds of development to which our criss-crossing interstate system lends itself, and the desire to retain the county's rural character. Let's be honest — the sheer magnitude of those warehouses is a perpetual, visual reminder of how some of the landscape has changed.
County officials have undertaken various measures to try to preserve our agricultural heritage. But while they seek the right balance between open space and development, there's plenty we can do to support the local farming community ourselves. We can, for example:
Learn about local farms. Under the direction of Agriculture Business Specialist Leslie Hart, the Business and Economic Development Department has compiled a wealth of information on the county's nearly $154 million agriculture industry. You can find it, as well as the "Faces of Farming" videos that feature individual farms, at washco-md.net/business-development/agriculture
Visit a local farm. Agri-tourism is becoming a major economic driver here, and several local farms welcome visitors and have seasonal farm stands. That groundhog promised us an early spring, so if you're a townie like me, make plans now to take the kids on a trip into the countryside. I arranged just such a "surprise" visit with some friends who had a farm when my nieces were little, but I didn't begin to anticipate the level of excitement they displayed when they saw where they were going. There were cows. There were horses. There were goats, donkeys, chickens and a pot-belly pig. The girls were wide-eyed and thrilled. One of them is now studying to be a large-animal vet.
Buy local produce. At the same website where you can learn about local agriculture, you can find a list of local farm stands. And you can patronize markets that also sell local farm produce.
Visit the Washington County Agricultural Education Center. The Rural Heritage Museum there is open by appointment only until the end of next month, but beginning April 6, it's open from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays until December. The Ag Expo and Fair is set for July 13-20, but there are events at the center throughout the year. Check the schedule at washco-md.net/ag-center/ag-center-events
Let your voice be heard. The county's planning department is finalizing its comprehensive land use plan to guide development through 2040. Support the farming community by reviewing the plan and adding your comments for the staff to consider. You can find the plan at washco-md.net/planning-zoning/comp-plan-2040
It's an easy thing to fret over what so many see as the encroachment of development on agricultural landscape. But the best way to keep that farmland viable as farmland is to support our local farmers.
In other words, make it worth their while.
We'd have a lot more trouble putting food on our own tables without them.
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This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: To maintain our rural character, we need to support our farmers
