Agricultural Commission Meeting June 23, 2010

My opening comments as Chair of the Agricultural Commission for the meeting of June 23. I was nervous about them but they were very well recieved

Agriculture in Effingham is at a crossroads in its future. The town has granted us the ability to form this commission to advise the town as a whole and the various boards in particular as to issues relating to general agriculture. In turn the selectmen have appointed the five regular and the five alternate members as directed by the town.. As a town we have not been blessed with a major body of water with which to attract tourists and many summer residents, we are not situated in a major highway with which to attract more industrial type of development. In some areas many services are not offered unless we have a concentration of industry to utilize those services, and industry will not locate here unless we are able to offer those services. I see the future of this town as being in the area of agriculture, and agricultural related businesses. We can make a name for ourselves in promoting ourselves as an agriculturally friendly town. New Hampshire as a whole is becoming very agriculturally challenged, and we have to find a way to turn this tide. Development is encroaching on farm land and history has shown that once that land is lost it almost never reverts back to agricultural use, and the sprawl keeps on happening. Farmers also have to be able to coexist with more and more residential neighbors, and conservation issues.
Effingham has a rich agricultural history, all you have to do is listen to landmarks, you have the Davis Farm, The Watson Farm, Gale Farm, Cloverleaf Farm, Meloon Farm, Washburn Farm, and Farm by the River to name a few. The problem being is many people are moving to the area because of the “rural character”, but not knowing what that entails. They come to places like Effingham because of the wide open spaces, yet complain about the noise of the frogs at night, or the rooster crowing at dawn. They complain about the smell of manure in the spring or the cows that invariably get out and roam the area.
On Tuesday June first the Union Leader ran an article based on a report exploring the economic impact of New Hampshire’s local food. It was found that only thirty percent of New Hampshire’s farms had positive income while forty seven percent nationwide do. Maine has forty percent and Vermont forty four percent. Granted Northern States will have a lower percentage than southern states because of challenges in climate and land type. Farmers in New Hampshire could only feed six percent of our population compared to forty percent for Maine and Vermont. While both other states have less population density than New Hampshire, it is imperative that agriculture in New Hampshire close the gap.
One of the problems in New Hampshire as I have stated before is the sprawl factor that is happening, and looking at farmland lost in the southern tier of the state and moving northward. To combat this sprawl we have to make regulations more agriculturally friendly. We also have to make our farms more efficient to help make up for lost lands. I have been skimming the best management practices put out by the state, and they have guidelines to help with that as well as helping to protect the environment.
It behooths those involved in agriculture to be good stewards of the land. I don’t care what your religious beliefs are, but if you look at the Bible, it gives good sound management practices like rotating crops, and letting land lay fallow to recharge itself. I for one am very interested in the pasture management plan being put into use by the Klotz’s at the Farm by the River, as it works in just that type of philosophy. As farmers we must be good stewards of the land and our environment to help promote a healthy environment and a healthy population. We look at the large Agri-businesses and cringe as they utilize every square inch of their land, deplete the nutrients in the soil, then treat the land with chemicals to build those nutrients up artificially. One just has to wonder what the health connections are as we look at risks like ADD, ADHD, Autism, Cancer, High Blood Pressure, just to name a few. Face it many environmentalists cringe when they hear the word farm today because they equate farms with the huge agri-businesses. It is up to us to work with groups like the planning board, Conservation Commission, Zoning Board of Adjustment, Board of Selectmen, and Green Mountain Conservation Group, to educate that farms can co-exist with residential uses, conservation uses, as well as other uses. Mush of our richest farmland borders lakes, rivers, ponds, and other wetlands. But by utilizing best management practices we can coexist. It is in the agriculturist’s best interest to protect surface water, ground water, and deep water, as well as properly maintain open spaces, and forest land. We want to protect Steep slopes because of what we see happening in California with mud slides. Proper forest management can help preclude forest fires. We all know the importance of water sources for irrigation and watering of animals. If we pollute those sources we taint the quality of our crops and our animals.
My challenge to all in this room is to keep this in mind as we continue on with our planning and evaluations of regulations and resources. Work with our counterparts on other boards and commissions to come up with recommendations to protect everyone. This is not about personal agendas; it is about the best interest and development of the town of Effingham and the agricultural community, and development of agricultural related businesses.

Taming the tongue

Yesterday in church Pastor Dan Mitchum preached on James 3:1-13, the title of the Sermon was Taming the Tongue. The crux of the sermon was to think before you speak and to choose your words carefully, as words hurt. We are taught at a young age the saying Sticks and Stones can break my bones, but words can not hurt me. The contrary is actually true, words do hurt and they hurt deeply. In some cases worse than the sticks and stones, as the broken bones can heal and we get on with our lives, however the injuries that are caused by words can last a lifetime.

An example of this is a girl I knew growing up. She went to a different school, but I knew her through her family and some work I did for their family with my then brother in law. She was a smart very beautiful young lady, popular in her circle and very well thought of. Her parents went through a messy divorce, and in anguish her mother, who had found out her husband had been having numerous affairs, and supporting a mistress secretly yelled, in front of this beautiful young lady, "I should never have married that (expletive deleted)(expletive deleted), it was the biggest mistake of my life." What this beautiful young girl heard was I should never have married that man, and everything that happened with him was a big mistake. This translated to the girl that she was a huge mistake, even though she and her mother had had a pretty close relationship. She turned to sleeping around with whoever would have her, she started using drugs, and ignoring her schoolwork. This was in her senior year of high school, and she had already been accepted into the college of her choice. I lost touch with her when I went into college, and then the service, but did look her up at her mothers home in 1984 when I was stationed in South Weymouth Mass. She was a mess, smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day, hooked on drugs, and mother of a 4 year old with no father around (she said she wasn't even sure of who the father was). I am sorry to say I left her house that day and lost contact with her in spite of saying I would be in touch, as her lifestyle was not what conducive to mine. I don't know what ever happened to Lisa.

After hearing that sermon though and remembering this story, I can relate as to how words do hurt. Here was a bright promising young lady, who heard in a moment of rage and betrayal that her life was a mistake and that she should never have been. He promising life was sent into a spiraling downturn, until she was in a morass of drugs, promiscuity, and depression. I am sure her mother truly loved her and would not have changed having her in a moment, but those words uttered made such an impact that they erased years of relationship that the two had together. Words that if had been held in check, and not uttered at all in front of such an impressionable girl, would have had such a different result in this ladies life.

So think before you utter words, they may have very different results than you intended them to have. Are the legacy you wish to be known by?

Declutter your life

I was struck by a fact the other day, it had actually been there buried in the back of my mind for some time, and something my daughter Grace has been doing brought it to the forefront and cased me to reflect on it more and more.
Since Khrys came home from college she has been nagging Grace to clean her room and organize. Khrys has always been a clutter free type of person, at least in her own room (don't ask e about the rest of the house.) Through this verbal sparring, Grace finally started the decluttering process. Last Sunday, Janet and I went through a utility closet in Grace's room and disposed of several boxes of "important" stuff that we hadn't looked at in probably fifteen years, and ended up taking a truck load to the transfer station (ie. dump). Grace has continued on and produced about eight bags of trash for me to dispose of on Saturday. When I asked where it all came from, she responded it was stuff important to her when she was little, and that she was not little anymore, so it was time go. There were toys that were broken, games missing pieces that hadn't been played in years, but up until now she just couldn't bring herself to part with. She has books she has outgrown she wants to give away to someone who would enjoy them. When she said this I felt hit up the side of the head with a two by four. Out of the mouth of babes, and she is so wise beyond her twelve years.
We spend so much of our time in our lives cluttered by the junk of the past, and it seems like the older we get, the more we are cluttered, because more has accumulated to clutter us all up. I look into my office and I see the stuff I just can't live without. I haven't used it in years, but just can't do without it. My bedroom is the same way, pants I haven't worn in years have to stay there because I may fit in them again (yeah right).
Don't get me wrong, memories of the past are a great thing and do have a place in our lives, but not all the junk we tend to collect as humans. We must remember our past, for it is a part of what has brought us to where we are today, and it is important to remember. A famous quote warns us that if we do not remember history we are condemned to repeat it. The danger my friend is when we dwell in the past, pining for the "good old days". When we do this we have a tendency to lose the future and all of its possibilities. We cling to what was and seem to miss the the possibilities of what is and what could be. We tend to cling so tightly to what we think is important that we miss the path to what is so truly important.
An analogy I was thinking of, is a driver on the freeway. Where he is at any given moment is the now, anything behind the car is the past and anything in front of the car is the future. He is looking for a particular exit, one that he knows will get him to his destination. To do this he must be looking forward, facing the future. If he spends to much time looking in the rear view mirror watching where he has been, he can miss that most important sign telling him where he is to go.
The same thing is true in life. If we spend so much time looking to the past we miss the important signs for the future, and let us face it, the future is where we are going to spend the rest of our lives, regardless of how hard we try to block it, not in the past. is it time to get rid of the clutter in your life, so you can get out of the past and start your journey into the future. Loosen your bonds on the past, how many bags of trash can you get rid of, so you can journey boldly into the future.