Agriculture and agrotourism are fundamental to the Upper Valley’s culture and economy. However, the number of farmers has declined by 10% over the past decade, and only about 2% of Americans today are farmers, according to census of agriculture data from 2022. Locals expressed concern about the future of the industry and its aging population.
Hatchlands Farm office manager Kristen May said the rising average age of farmers is a “big concern.” Hatchlands is a family-owned dairy farm in North Haverhill, New Hampshire, founded by May’s parents in the late 1960s.
“It’s sad that the town of North Haverhill only has three working dairy farms left in it,” May said. “... There were definitely a lot more just 50 years ago.”
Farms like the Norwich Farm Creamery — which faced foreclosure last spring — are part of a declining number of farms in the Upper Valley.
The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Foods and Markets is an organization that “facilitates, supports and encourages the growth and viability of agriculture in Vermont,” according to their website. VAAFM manager Laura Ginsburg said for “bigger generational farms that have been around for a long time” the changing population dynamics of agriculture are “definitely a big concern.”
“We don’t have a lot of younger people interested in farming and learning it,” she said.
Ginsburg added that financial education and training programs would help get more young people into farming.
Crossroads Farm owner and manager Phil Mason said the federal and state governments have a “role” in bringing more young people into agriculture by helping them financially. Crossroads is located in Post Mills, Vt., and has a farm stand in Norwich, Vt. Without low-interest loans with subsidized interest rates, Mason does not see there being “much of a chance” of bringing in new farmers.
“I think that there is a role for the state and at the federal level, too, for there to be accessible low-interest loans for aspiring farmers to be able to buy land,” he said.
Mason, 39, said he was “lucky” to have been able to secure his own farm at a young age through a partnership with the previous owners of Crossroads. He also said he was “concerned” about changing population dynamics, noting that increasing land costs make it difficult for young farmers to buy their own land.
Despite the issues that May identified within the agricultural industry, she said that the government should “keep their fingers out of farming.” May noted that New Hampshire only offers tax breaks through inland use property tax, whereas other states, including Vermont, provide broader programs that tax farmland at reduced values.
Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean studies professor Matthew Garcia, who studies origins of inequality in the food labor system, owns the Taste for Good Farm in Thetford, Vt. In Garcia’s experience, the process of founding a farm is very difficult, and he says variables like weather make a lot of farms “not a very profitable business.”
“You need government support to kind of offset those expenses and challenges,” Garcia said. “ … The government could do more to support small farmers.”
Garcia added that while Vermont provides support to farmers through water diversion and tree planting programs, he thinks “that there should be more of them.”
Garcia said it’s important to support small farmers because they tend to work in a “socially responsible way.”
“The corporate farmers are usually mistreating their immigrants or mistreating their animals — and really don’t have as much respect or knowledge of their land,” he said.
Ginsburg also noted the importance of mentorship between generations of farmers.
“People here care about agriculture and they see themselves as agricultural communities, and so leaning into that and finding where there is a space for a new farm to be successful can still happen,” Ginsburg said.
