Saving Farmland and Growing Healthy Communities for a Sustainable America

A Connecticut farmer offers reflection from a year in his fields: a call for wise land use in these difficult economic times.

By Terry Jones

I want to share with you a farmer’s vision of farmland preservation and its connection to growing healthy communities and a sustainable nation. It is a vision tempered by a lifetime of patiently coaxing trees, vines and bushes to bear fruit and bring happiness to families that visit us for the harvest. It is cradled in the tradition of my family’s love for the land. Will the same green and healthy environment be here for future generations of Americans?

Vision for a New Year

Last January, during a midwinter thaw when December snows were washed away by rain, I walked about our farm reflecting on the recent Christmas tree harvest. It seemed like spring but, of course, we Connecticut Yankees know winter was not really gone!

The sun’s warmth felt good, teasing me to enjoy the moment and savor the natural beauty of the surrounding farms of Shelton’s White Hills.

Released from its protective blanket of snow, the winter rye we planted on pumpkin and vegetable fields after the fall harvest was a vibrant green. Especially verdant in the early morning sun were the hillside fields of the Shelton Family Farm, stretching before me down to Connecticut Route 110 at the western “gateway” to our city. Thoughts of appreciation and pride filled my mind as I recollected the recent partnership between the Shelton family and city and federal officials to permanently protect the working lands of this scenic and productive hillside for generations to come.

Later the same day, I walked along Canal Street in the century-old industrial area of downtown Shelton.  The late afternoon sun brought out the rich color of the old, red brick factories along the Housatonic River. I paused to watch progress on the long-abandoned Birmingham corset factory as workers continued to craft its metamorphosis into a living space both beautiful and affordable for more than a hundred families.

Seeing the old factory resurrected to a new life was no less a thrill than viewing the beauty of preserved hillside fields!

I felt great pride that our city of Shelton and its entrepreneurs care enough for its rich heritage to invest in preserving these diverse, yet connected places. Protected farmland and historic buildings are a vital part of our community. We cherish them for their traditional beauty and functions that enrich our lives.

In these stressful economic times, we must nurture opportunities to invest in the quality of life within our communities. More than ever, we need our green spaces, parks, places of history, affordable housing, farms and gardens. Healthy food and recreation are even more important to our physical, spiritual, and mental health as the depressing drum of negative economic statistics beats away daily.

More than ever—both within our towns and collectively as a nation—let us resolve to be attentive stewards of our farmland and our historic downtowns.

Without leadership and vision, it is so easy to spread sprawl across our fields and forests while letting downtowns and “brownfields” languish.

Growing balanced communities should be our gift to future generations. They deserve the opportunity to reap the harvest of the quality of life we have known.

Lessons from a Hayfield

In July, I mowed our favorite hayfield. For forty summers, I have cut the hay just as the Jones farmers have done for 120 seasons before me. Like the farmer on the tractor seat, my mower is old and has to be guided slowly to cut the hay that stands thick and high as the tractor’s tall tires. So, I have time to savor the experience and dream.

Whoosh! A wild turkey and her young flock exploded out of the tall grass and I was jolted back to my mowing field. When we had cows, mowing was in June—there’s more milk production from the younger grasses. But now, strawberries, vegetables, vineyards and Christmas trees take the place of cows, and I give the hay to my neighbor for his beef herd. In return, some cold January evening, I will enjoy a healthy, grass-fed steak.

As I savor its Connecticut-grown flavor, I will find hope that more people of our state find health and pleasure from what Connecticut farms produce. I will look across the snowy field and memories will return of mowing. Once again, I will re-live the joy of a July morning with a warm, blue sky and my tractor cutting through an ocean of brome, orchard and timothy grasses, their seed-heads waving and tossed by the west wind. Like seagulls behind a fishing trawler, the swallows swoop and dive around me to catch a bird-feast of insects released by the falling hay.

The field has nourished the body and souls of people, cattle, and wildlife since Connecticut was young. The tradition continues. Christmas tree seekers cross it in December; our community worships on it each Easter sunrise; and scores of children romp and celebrate spring in the field at our town’s Kite Festival. There have been weddings, church barbeques, and stargazers… and the immeasurable value of day-to-day solace felt by passing motorists as they see a field instead of sprawl.

After the Harvest: Seeding Winter Rye

On a late October morning, I was going “full steam.” Pumpkins were harvested and I was preparing fields to seed winter rye, catching that elusive window before a rain. It was sunrise and I was on the tractor pulling a very big disc up the long farm lane to our fields on the hilltop. As I approached the steepest part, I saw a man walking. It was not unusual because our “friends of the farm” use designated farm trails. I shifted down, engaged 4WD, and began to creep up the last stretch of the steep incline. The walking man paused and moved off the lane. Yes! He knew I was in a hurry so he was getting out of my way! But no!  As I moved right alongside him, he turned and gestured emphatically for me to stop. This was insanity! I was pulling a 14’ wide harrow, several tons of steel up a steep hill with fields awaiting a truckload of bulk seed coming today and rain falling tomorrow!

But I stopped… for the old man walking. Reaching and opening the cab door, I heard him passionately exclaim, “I need to tell you something! I need to say ‘thank you’ for farming this land and letting me walk here… and for allowing me to bring my family here to buy your fresh fruit and vegetables… and thank you for helping our town save farmland and open space so my grandchildren will have a chance to enjoy what I have enjoyed!”

Well, I tell you, my tensed face just relaxed a bit and a smile came… and I thanked him!

A minute later, as I hauled that big green harrow over the hill’s crest and onto level ground, I took a moment to look back at the view—at the beautiful farms across the valley and at the sunrise. My eyes watered up a bit and it was not just from squinting at the orange sun.

I am still feeding on the message told to me by that old man walking. I hope you will, too!

Terry Jones of the Jones Family Farms is a fifth-generation farmer in Shelton, Connecticut. He serves as Chairman of Connecticut’s Working Lands Alliance.