New Hampshire Farmer Sees the Big Picture in Farm Policy

The heart of Gary Matteson’s farm is the one-third acre of greenhouses where he raises anemones for sale in Boston, but Matteson himself sees farming in a much bigger way.  “My interests as a greenhouse grower can be very much in line with the interests of a neighbor who is dairy farming and other neighbors who don’t farm at all.”

His farm illustrates his point.  He owns swamp land where water can run off, seep down into the soil and recharge the aquifer.  Better management of water also produces great grass where dairy cattle graze, and the lush landscape says “farm” to the people who drive by.  “They stop and take picture,” he says, “It’s like mobile advertising for agriculture.”

Matteson takes a big picture approach, too, when it comes to land preservation and farm policy.  Though his operation doesn’t qualify for federal crop programs, he’s active on the policy front, visiting with New Hampshire state legislators at least yearly, participating in the American Farmland Trust’s farm forum program, and testifying to a U.S. Department of Agriculture listening session on farm credit issues.

At the federal level, he hopes to see better funding for the broad category of green payments and increased support for rural entrepreneurship so that rural economies can thrive, not just survive.

“With programs like EQIP, farmers put money into practical things like manure storage and water management that benefit the public as a whole.  It’s not practical for the farmer to do some of this on his own, because there’s no return when he sells his crop.  So it’s a reasonable public expenditure to pay farmers for providing these benefits.”

Locally, Matteson works to preserve both farmland and farming.  On a personal level, he has bought 25 at-risk acres adjacent to his farm, paying for the land by selling off a few house lots.  More important is his involvement with the New Hampshire Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture, a virtual organization that supplies toolkits to help guide planners, conservation committees, and local governments preserve their areas’ rural character.

Any citizen can take the toolkit to a local board as a way of asking, “Are we doing what we should to be friendly to farms in our town?” according to Matteson.  The next update for the toolkit will offer guidance on how a community can form an advisory agricultural commission – or as Matteson says, “a group of champions for agriculture.” 

Matteson is optimistic for the future of agriculture, citing the ingenuity of farmers in finding markets.  He believes government green payments will provide bridge funding so that farmers who aren’t satisfied with what they are currently doing can move toward finding new markets.

“What grandpa did is a backward-looking perspective.  Instead, we have to look forward.  He had to change his operation, and I’ll have to plan on changing mine,” Matteson says.

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