Spring has arrived with its familiar rites: Seed catalogs on the kitchen table, window boxes getting a fresh look, and farmers turning their attention to another season of planting and harvesting. It is a good moment to ask what Harvard owes the farms that have shaped this town for generations, and what we can do to ensure their future.
The Boston Globe editorial page rang an alarm this week that should echo here: Massachusetts farming is in crisis. According to a report released in December by a special state commission, two in three farmers statewide are operating at a loss, the commonwealth has shed 27,000 acres in five years, approximately 5.5% of the state’s farmland, and federal support programs have been slashed. The average Massachusetts farmer sells 94 cents of produce for every dollar spent producing it.
Harvard is lucky. While many Massachusetts communities have watched their orchards give way to subdivisions, we still have four working family farms that define this town as surely as the Common. Carlson Orchards has grown fruit on Oak Hill since 1936, now with a hard cider taproom and solar installation that make it a model of farm sustainability. Westward Orchards has fed the Nashoba Valley for four generations, its CSA entering its 14th season. Old Frog Pond is one of a handful of certified organic orchards in all of Massachusetts, its fields a living gallery of art and agriculture. And Doe Orchards has quietly welcomed pick-your-own families for decades.
So what can Harvard do? Two things. First, get the local tax question right. As the town weighs whether to raise its commercial and industrial property tax rate as a means to grow future revenues, officials have rightly begun asking how to shield farms from any such increase. That instinct should become policy, a formal and durable exemption that gives farm families the certainty they need to invest in the next generation.
Second, watch Beacon Hill. The Senate was scheduled to take up this week S.3029 (“An Act Fostering Agricultural Resilience in Massachusetts”) to simplify agritourism zoning and fund new farmer grants. Our Select Board and Planning Board should ensure Harvard’s own regulations support—not merely tolerate—the events, tastings, and programs that keep these businesses viable.
And then, simply: show up. Buy a Westward CSA share. Take the kids berry-picking at Doe’s, Stop at Carlson’s for more than the cider donuts. Sample the organic offerings at Old Frog Pond farm. Harvard has something most Massachusetts towns have already lost. As another planting season and harvest begin, let’s make sure we still have it next spring.