Small Farms

The MacLaren brothers are third-generation dairy farmers, but they will likely be the last in their family. After working all their lives on the hillside farm in Vermont that their grandfather bought in 1939, rising to milk cows at 3 a.m. even in blizzards and sub-zero temperatures, they decided to call it quits, auctioning off their roughly 200 cows and equipment ranging from stalls and hoof trimmers to tractors and steel pails. The sale marked the end of the last dairy farm in Plainfield, a small town that once had several dozen, and the loss of the 14th dairy farm to go out of...

The MacLaren brothers are third-generation dairy farmers, but they will likely be the last in their family. After working all their lives on the hillside farm in Vermont that their grandfather bought in 1939, rising to milk cows at 3 a.m. even in blizzards and sub-zero temperatures, they decided to call it quits, auctioning off their roughly 200 cows and equipment ranging from stalls and hoof trimmers to tractors and steel pails. The sale marked the end of the last dairy farm in Plainfield, a small town that once had several dozen, and the loss of the 14th dairy farm to go out of...

DAYTON, Va. - At the wholesale produce market in this Mennonite community, farming families arrive by horse and buggy, and pallets are stacked high with freshly harvested Shenandoah Valley onions, corn, green peppers, and squash. The setting evokes a simpler, preindustrial era. In reality, small-scale farmers are experiencing growing pains as they adapt to the country's expanding diet for locally grown foods and the exacting demands of high-volume distributors of their produce.

Two animal welfare organizations rescued 32 miniature horsescq from a small farm in West Boylstoncq, on Thursday after a state veterinarian determined that the horses' basic needs were not being met. The horses were underweight, dirty, and laden with internal parasites, according to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animalscq. The MSPCA transported 18cq of the horses to the MSPCA Nevins Farmcq facility in Methuencq. The other horses were transported to the Animal Rescue League of Boston'scq facility in Dedhamcq.

*½ FARMAGEDDON: The Unseen War on American Family Farms Written and directed by: Kristin Canty At: Boston Common Running time: 86 minutes Unrated ‘Farmageddon: The Unseen War on American Family Farms" marks the directorial debut of Kristin Canty, a Concord mother of four. Canty's more interested in advocacy, though, than filmmaking. That isn't to say the film is negligently made. Canty intersperses appealing shots of green markets, small farms, and the like with numerous talking-head interviews.

CARPIO, N.D. -- Garnet Bloms calls the cows she milks "Girlie," but she calls herself the "Cow Lady. " "I'm just an old great-grandma who milks cows," said Bloms, 73, who's milked thousands of cows over the last 52 years on her farm in northwestern North Dakota. "That's what an old farm wife is supposed to do. " But the Cow Lady is part of a vanishing tradition. Small, family-run dairy farms are disappearing in North Dakota as aging farmers retire or die. Increasingly, these small farms are being replaced by large commercial operations.

IPSWICH - Mario Marini has tilled the rich soil at his farm for nearly all of his 75 years. Sweet corn, plump tomatoes, leafy greens, and other vegetable crops grow on 50 acres that dip and rise along Linebrook Road. The white-haired farmer, with strong hands and an easy smile, learned to plant and plow from his Italian immigrant father, one of four men who started the farm in 1928. "I love the growing," Marini said, stooping in a field to look at still-green tomatoes. "I love the challenge of making a crop grow… . If it's dry, what can I do to water it?

Crofter’s Superfruit Spreads ($4.79 for an 11-ounce jar), made by an eco-conscious Canadian company, makes an organic line with fruits grown on small farms in different continents. A croft is enclosed land tended by a farmer known as a crofter. South America spread contains maqui, an indigenous berry, and passionfruit; Asia mixes raspberries and yumberries. Morello cherries and red grapes are also blended in, with very little sugar. Each jar is packed with a pound of chunky fruit, reminiscent of homemade preserves.

IT'S A sign of progress in the food industry when good ethics are seen as good business. Last week, McDonalds announced that it would require its pork suppliers to phase out the use of "gestation pens," the 2-foot-by-7-foot metal cages that some industrial farms use to hold breeding sows. Animal-rights advocates, including the Humane Society of the United States, have long complained that the pens are unsanitary and cruel. The European Union, New Zealand, and eight US states have already banned their use. A move from a giant restaurant chain will pressure the...

WASHINGTON — The Senate has voted to move forward on a far-reaching food safety bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration more power to prevent foodborne illnesses. The Senate voted 74-25 to proceed with the bill. Supporters needed 60 votes because Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, had objected, saying the legislation’s $1.4 billion cost isn’t paid for. The bill would give the FDA more authority to recall tainted products, increase inspections of food processors, and require producers to follow stricter standards for keeping food safe.

IT'S A sign of progress in the food industry when good ethics are seen as good business. Last week, McDonalds announced that it would require its pork suppliers to phase out the use of "gestation pens," the 2-foot-by-7-foot metal cages that some industrial farms use to hold breeding sows. Animal-rights advocates, including the Humane Society of the United States, have long complained that the pens are unsanitary and cruel. The European Union, New Zealand, and eight US states have already banned their use. A move from a giant restaurant chain will pressure the agriculture industry even more: McDonalds...

WHO: Kurt Timmermeister WHAT: In his book, ‘‘Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land," Timmermeister traces his path from young Seattle-based restaurant owner to rookie farmer to artisan cheese maker. He's currently writing a second book, ‘‘Growing a Feast," which will follow one dinner built entirely from his farm and brought to the table. Q. What was your first step to becoming a farmer? A. I bought a piece of land with very little expectation or design to what I would turn it into.

FOR THREE decades the UN World Food Day on Oct. 16 has offered a ready-made opportunity to tackle hunger's causes and solutions. Unfortunately, the conversation often focuses narrowly on ways to increase the food supply with purchased technologies originating far from farmers' fields. This focus isn't working. The world produces more than enough for each of us to thrive. Yet the number of hungry people has hit all-time highs, now nearly 1 billion. Globally, our core problem is not a lack of quantity of food but rather the destructive quality of human power relationships: The...

LAST WEEKEND, my family visited a 300-acre farm outside Philadelphia that, over time, had converted itself from dairy supplier to tourism mecca. We took a hayride through the orchards, past the pick-your-own peaches, raspberries, and pumpkins, and on to the do-it-yourself Christmas tree fields where they give customers their own saws. (At this point, the adults started making cracks about whether emergency-room copays were included.) We rode past the designated birthday party area, the spot where nighttime hayrides were greeted by "friendly witches," and the hill where...

IPSWICH - Mario Marini has tilled the rich soil at his farm for nearly all of his 75 years. Sweet corn, plump tomatoes, leafy greens, and other vegetable crops grow on 50 acres that dip and rise along Linebrook Road. The white-haired farmer, with strong hands and an easy smile, learned to plant and plow from his Italian immigrant father, one of four men who started the farm in 1928. "I love the growing," Marini said, stooping in a field to look at still-green tomatoes. "I love the challenge of making a crop grow… . If it's dry, what can I do to water it?

*½ FARMAGEDDON: The Unseen War on American Family Farms Written and directed by: Kristin Canty At: Boston Common Running time: 86 minutes Unrated ‘Farmageddon: The Unseen War on American Family Farms" marks the directorial debut of Kristin Canty, a Concord mother of four. Canty's more interested in advocacy, though, than filmmaking. That isn't to say the film is negligently made. Canty intersperses appealing shots of green markets, small farms, and the like with numerous talking-head interviews.

STRAHAN, Tasmania -- If you see Meyjitte Boughenout bending over the lawn at Franklin Manor, the charming little hotel he owns in this small seaside community, he's not weeding. He's picking mushrooms to take to his kitchen to cook that very night, for a sauce to be served with braised rabbit. Boughenout, 33, was trained in Europe, with Michelin-starred chefs, but found European attitudes toward food stifling. Two years ago, he landed in Strahan, where he can pick cpes in the front yard.

WHO: Kurt Timmermeister WHAT: In his book, ‘‘Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land," Timmermeister traces his path from young Seattle-based restaurant owner to rookie farmer to artisan cheese maker. He's currently writing a second book, ‘‘Growing a Feast," which will follow one dinner built entirely from his farm and brought to the table. Q. What was your first step to becoming a farmer? A. I bought a piece of land with very little expectation or design to what I would turn it into.

A GRAIN CONFERENCE will take place July 14 at UMass Farm, 89-91 River Road, South Deerfield. On July 15, the conference will be at Colrain Seed Farm, 400 Adamsville Road, Colrain. For more information, call 413-545-5221 or go to www.growseed.org. COLRAIN - Some people use the spare room in their house for an office or an entertainment center. Eli Rogosa made hers into a wheat museum. Rogosa drinks coffee flavored with her neighbor’s maple syrup as she sautes mushrooms and garlic with curry powder.

LAKE PROVIDENCE, La. — In an agonizing trade-off, Army engineers said they will open a key spillway along the bulging Mississippi River as early as today and inundate thousands of homes and farms in Louisiana’s Cajun country to avert a potentially bigger disaster in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. About 25,000 people and 11,000 structures could be in harm’s way when the gates on the Morganza spillway are unlocked for the first time in 38 years. Opening the spillway will release a torrent that could submerge about 3,000 square miles under...