Abigail Anthony: Hogs, quahogs and the '07 Farm
Bill
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 30, 2005
Providence Journal Bulletin
WHEN WE THINK of farming in Rhode Island, we picture Holsteins grazing
along stone walls, fields ripe with sweet corn, farm stands overflowing
with tomatoes. But there are other farms that don't come to mind, because
they are underwater.
Across America, the Department of Agriculture is now holding public
forums to obtain information for the development of the 2007 Farm Bill. In
America's heartland, this piece of federal legislation is as familiar as
quahogs are in Rhode Island.
Rhode Islanders need to be aware of the significance of the 2007 Farm
Bill, because its impact on the state would be much broader than price
supports for soybeans and subsidies for winter wheat. As important as the
Farm Bill is for conventional agriculture, its reach extends to the core
of what we value in Rhode Island.
Some of Rhode Island's most economically and ecologically important
farms and coastal habitats are salt marsh, soft mud, sand bottoms and
eelgrass beds. At the turn of the 20th Century, Narragansett Bay was being
extensively farmed. Oyster farms proliferated around the Bay and there was
a thriving scallop industry. Now, with the loss of a high percentage of
salt-marsh habitat, the loss of all but 100 acres of eelgrass beds, and
the pollution of open-water areas, Rhode Island's economically important
oyster and scallop industries have been reduced.
The Farm Bill's Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) provides
funds for restoring marine habitat around Narragansett Bay. Restoration
efforts have been under way for several years, with significant
results.
Eelgrass is a food for waterfowl, a habitat for crab and fish species,
a water purifier, and a habitat stabilizer. Scientists estimate that along
the Atlantic Coast, almost all economically valuable fish species spend
part or all of their lives in estuaries such as Narragansett Bay.
In the Bay, marine-bottom areas provide the best habitat, support a
great diversity of marine animals, and have far-reaching effects on water
quality and estuary health. Small fish, such as mummichogs, find safe
hiding places in the salt marshes, and such larger fish as juvenile winter
flounder, juvenile bluefish and American eels use the eelgrass beds as
nurseries, until they are large enough to venture into open waters.
The eelgrass beds also provide surfaces for invertebrate species, such
as scallops and shrimp, to find a home.
Eelgrass beds improve water quality by trapping nutrients and sediment,
and they reduce coastal erosion by dampening wave energy.
In addition to supporting marine-habitat restoration, Farm Bill funds
have been used to promote aquaculture in the Bay. Aquaculture, the
business of farming marine fish and shellfish, is expected to be one of
the top-10 growth industries in the next decade. It is the nation's
fastest-growing agricultural business.
It is hard to ignore that the Rhode Island landscape is changing
rapidly. Rhode Islanders are confronted with development and the
associated loss of farmland. When farmland is converted into condominiums
and conference centers, Rhode Islanders lose: an industry that grosses
over $100 million a year; their connection to food production; and the
restorative power of agrarian landscapes and vistas.
Rhode Islanders put high value on rural landscapes, and they show this
every election year when they overwhelmingly approve open-space bond
funding. Working farms define our rural heritage, and over the past decade
$10 million of Farm Bill funding has been spent to protect working farms.
Farm Bill funds have also been used to protect over $2 million worth of
Rhode Island grassland and open-meadow habitat, one of our rarest
ecological communities.
Rhode Islanders' priorities include keeping working farms working,
supporting the type of agriculture that works here, and preserving the
state's remaining farmland. Consider the Rhody Fresh milk venture.
Supported by Farm Bill funding, Rhody Fresh is a cooperative of five
Rhode Island dairy farms. The venture enhances farming in the state,
staving off development pressure. Now in its second year, the cooperative
has annual milk sales greater than $1 million, and Rhody Fresh milk can be
found in more than 75 stores statewide.
With so many Rhode Island farms lost, we must preserve what is left of
our agricultural heritage by promoting innovative farming. At the same
time, we must restore the health of our rivers, streams, grasslands and
Bay, and develop underwater agriculture. Rhode Island needs a strong Farm
Bill in 2007. The quality of life we value in Rhode Island depends on
it.
Abigail Anthony is a writer for the Jamestown Press and a fellow of the
University of Rhode Island's Coastal Institute.