Farming's future - Tour looks at valley's shrinking agricultural land
By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian
Dozens of community leaders and policymakers put on their walking shoes and toured Missoula Valley farms Sunday to learn firsthand about the challenges of agriculture in the 21st-century and to hear concerns about sustaining a strong local food system.
Organized by the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition, the tour showcased four farms on the fringe of Missoula and sparked a day of intense discussion about how to safeguard the valley's agricultural lands.
Rising oil prices, food safety, competition for food among affluent countries, an increasing population and climate change all raise serious questions about the sustainability of the global food system, said Neva Hassanein, an organizer of the tour and an environmental studies professor at the University of Montana.
Jim Gouax and Betty Oleson climb to the top of a hill Sunday to look at the historic 341-acre Mastel Farm on Deshamps Lane, one of four visited in a tour organized by the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition. Tour organizers said the land is some of the best farmland in Missoula and the Mastels are currently trying to obtain a conservation easement to protect it. Photo by LETTY HINGTGEN/Missoulian
In Missoula, those issues are compounded by urban development.
Agricultural land - land that has the necessary soil composition for growing food - occupies only 8 percent of the total area of Missoula County, Hassanein said.
Flat ground that drains well and has reliable water sources is the best place to grow food - but it's also the kind of place preferred by developers, she said.
When subdivisions and new buildings are reviewed, topics such as sewer, water, school access and other infrastructure necessities are discussed, Hassanein said. But until the coalition's recent participation in the review process, no one had been discussing the loss of agricultural land and where the community's food would come from.
“For years, every time plans of subdivision are reviewed, we write off use of that land as farmland,” Hassanein said.
That loss of land is incremental, one development at a time, she said. But with each passing year, it adds up to thousands of acres.
The effect? No one really knows, Hassanein said, but the concern is that Missoula will at some time face a tipping point.
“We have no inventory of what remains of our agricultural soils or what quality it is,” Hassanein said. “And our concern is about the future - about waking up in 20 years with no capacity to produce food locally.”
A crowd of about 65 people participated in the tour, including Missoula City Council members, city planners, Missoula County commissioners and representatives from local land-use planning firm WGM, the Catalyst cafe and the Good Food Store.
Among the many questions they pondered: What will it take to protect the remaining agricultural land in Missoula County? How can we be creative about protecting agricultural land and providing predictable patterns for future development? How can we help beginning farmers get started? To what extent can we feed residents with local food now and in the future?
Missoula Mayor John Engen said the tour was a fantastic experience, and he's eager to see how the lesson translates into community policy and progress.
Engen said the tour has him chewing over how to better connect local farmers with markets, how to find ways to sell local produce left over from Missoula's farmers markets, and how to develop better communication between farmers and existing agricultural agencies such as the Missoula County Extension Service.
“There is a lot of room for people to work together on these matters,” Engen said. “And I think we live in a world that makes tremendous sense to talk about and act on sustainability issues.”
The daylong tour made stops at Clark Fork Organics on Tower Street, the Moua and Khang Farm on South Seventh Street West, the Mastel Farm on Deschamps Lane, and the Cusker Ranch along the Clark Fork River in Grass Valley.
Inspired by what he saw and heard, Missoula County Commissioner Bill Carey said one key way to support farming in Missoula is to get laws changed at the state level.
“When it comes to subdivision rules, we are limited by state statutes,” Carey said. “We don't have a full array of tools to deal with, to preserve agricultural land in the midst of development.
“I know I'd like to see a program that creates incentives to have developers cluster development and free up agriculture lands for agriculture,” he said. “And try and to get ahold on sprawl in regions with good soils.”
Reporter Betsy Cohen can be reached at 523-5253 or at bcohen@missoulian.com.
