Sustainable Food and Farming in the Connecticut River Valley: A Vision

Sustainable Food and Farming in the Connecticut River Valley: A Vision

APPENDIX D . TIMELINES

	Personal	Global	Valley
1945	Growing up in a declining farm community Growing up in a rural 'burg	Hiroshima Marshall Plan End of WWII	Beginning shift away from local food production toward food importation Pick-your-own fruit Introduction of chemical fertilizers and pesticides Milking machines Bulk tanks Horse-ox-hand diversity Small farms Improved roads First commercial trout farm
1950	Born, born, born School ... school with a farm Raised on frozen vegetables Nature study, affection No TV until age 8	Begin Cold War GI Bill - suburbia begins	First milking parlor Acreage of onion production greatly reduced Limited number of small farms still use horses for fieldwork Asparagus production declines Tobacco farms and barns
1955	Born Birth and education in suburban area Suburban oblivion Youth on a prairie farm	Sputnik Deming goes to Japan Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education Iron Curtain	Air blast sprayers Grew up on dairy that sold milk directly to families Grew up on tobacco-vegetable-dairy farm The flood Reforestation - less sheep/cattle/dairy grazing Contract spraying of atrazine on field corn "Cow College" UMass gets ambitious
	Personal	Global	Valley
1960	Born, born Counterculture Social justice issues Grow up on dairy farm Growing up on tobacco-vegetable-dairy farm Strarted hay-beef-chicken growing on small valley farm. Living the "Ozzie and Harriet" thing Student during the ferment of the 60's First agricultural memory (age 5) Started high school Spent all my spare time in my grandmother's garden Dairy-farming parents sold cows, kept land Kissed a girl; got driver's license Planted first garden Saw farm animals for the first time Married a dairy farmer - 28 cows Hippie Parents divorced Summers in rural upstate New York Red Sox go to Pennant; lose in World Series Celtics are World Champs through the 60's Visited New York City - preferred rural areas Lost my father	Kennedy is killed Haight-Ashbury MLK and Bobby Kennedy assassinated Cuban Revolution Rachel Carson's Silent Spring Climate of optimism, prosperity Bob Dylan Liberation struggles of Third World peasants Coalitions of poor and intellectuals for social justice Decrease in number of farms TV and Madison Ave. grow up Cleveland's "River of Fire" Space race	Butter and sugar corn from Hadley Introduction of monied academic and professional classes as a majority Sold directly to stores "Community" came to farm Growth of UMass Rte. 116 completed Farm retail market expeanded Beginning of supermarkets Decline of tobacco crops Big sale on cow manure for organic farmers First sections of I-91 completed right Family size is down Children are mobile
	Personal	Global	Valley
1965	Non-farm youth interested in farming School - growing up in a non-agricultural environment Political awareness Visit grandparents' farm weekly Mall/industrial park on farmland where we once played Graduated from hihg school Family tragedy Went to progressive private school for two years Spent lots of time in the woods and fields with no grown-ups around	Hippies, drugs and rock 'n' rool Vietnam Civil Rights movement The Great Society Berkeley Free Speech movement Political turmoil Urban civil unrest (Watts) Kerner Commission - War on Poverty WIC, Food Stamps	Milk inspections require concrete stables Westover Air Base - Cold War and Vietnam Height of SAC readiness Dairy upsurge - larger herds Land grant college changes - fewer being trained and remaining
1968	First part-time jopb, in supermarket business	Humphrey loses to Nixon	UMass Library Tower Rte. 9 not yet developed
1970	Marched on Washington, D.C., against Vietnam War Grew up to enjoy wilderness and environment Study biology/physiology Moved to suburbs Grew up in New York City Organized farm workers and consumers for UFW	Earth Day Nixon - food as a weapon Kent State/Jackson State U.S. workers' incomes become stagnant Future Shock Famine in Africa Green Revolution Women's movement Cesar Chavez - United Farm Workers Decrease in number of farms - consolidation Oil embargo Clean water act Malling of America Roe V. Wade Watergate/Nixon	Maple sugar tours Growth of UMass Land values shifted from agriculture Chain stores want larger suppliers Pick-your-own businesses thrive Started to spray corn Zoning regulations Irrigation use is more widespread Food co-ops!
	Personal	Global	Valley
1975	U.S. Army Individuation from family origin, developed cultural critique Agricultural economics education - UMass Worked for Mass. Audubon Society Moved to Hilltowns	Trilateral Commission Beginning of the end of U.S. dominance Inflation Three Mile Island Seabrook protests Community gardens EPA and environmental legislation follows Love Canal, Times Beach, Bhopal Grassroots movements Rise of organic agriculture as a movement Computers/technology/microwave "The Brady Bunch" Larger percentage of food money going to food preparation rather than production "Get big or get out", says the secretary of agriculture	Founding of Western Mass. co-ops Pick-your-own End of egg farms Community Food and Agriculture Resource Center Canning Center Project APR buying of development rights Collapse of local food-buying co-ops Chapter 61A program begins Farmer's markets in Amherst, Greenfield Gentlemen farmers - smaller acreage Agriculture School Committees/policy planning Atkins becomes marketing phenomenon Environmental movement Micropropagation New England Small Farm Institute Malling of Hadley; sprawl Peak of suburban land use Enjoyed bounty of Valley harvest DEP gets BIG
	Personal	Global	Valley
1980		Materialism/consumption increase Farm foreclosures End of the American dream Recession Reagan era - TV wins First IPM funding Poverty increases High interest rates	Development: Mall #2 1982 - Food Bank opens Big Y purchases Adams Supermarket Beginning of resurgence toward local food production Organic and IPM Roadside stands Many local "farm credit" districts Food co-ops close - competition from B&C Supermarket First IPM programs at UMass Population growth in the Valley Co-op farms start Average age of farmer increases dramatically Tobacco leaves the Valley Alar is banned Continuing loss of farmland to housing development Whately municipal water supply is contaminated by Temek
	Personal	Global	Valley
1985	Field research on butterflies in Colorado rockies Shepherd and beef farmer Joined army Moved to California, then Texas Traveling Study sustainable agriculture Got married, had a daughter Integrating personal, cultural development Bought small farm, began raising sheep Moved to Northampton Passed the bar exam Worked on political and environmental campaigns Sold farm - but not to development Joined MACC Board Worked in Nicaragua IPM	Global warming Interdependence	Real estate value "run up" UMass has fiscal problems Big Y opens first store in Connecticut Small farm "commodity"-based agriculture fails Local zoning changes attempted - "cluster" development Founding Northeast Co-ops More local farmers' markets - in Northampton. Springfield, etc. CSAs begin to crop up DEM creates Connecticut Valley Action program Aquaculture arrives Dairy-herd buyout Larger existing farms diversify Right to farm laws - nuisance suits Suburban neighbors State cuts UMass Extension funding PVGA is formed Mass. economy is down Animal rights initiative Save the Family Farm campaign '87 AFT opens office in Valley Franklin Land Trust formed
	Personal	Global	Valley
1990		1990 Farm Bill Information Age Computers, communications Fax Mandela freed; change in South African government Competition East Timor massacre World markets are opening up NAFTA, GATT Loss of power of nation-states and their citizens Loss of credibility of electoral system Wool Act Animal Damage Control funding Wolves in the West Public awareness of agriculture Floods in Midwest UNCED "Rio Conference" Biotech boom Breakup of the Soviet Union	Recession Nuestras Raices begins ISIS in pre-formation Off-shore farmworkers for planting and harvesting use is restricted Ongoing interest in locally and organically grown food by consumers '91 Big Y produce warehouse opens "Design with Change in the Connecticut Valley" is published AFT/DFA COCS studies in Gill, Agawam, Deerfield Hilltown Land trust Creation of Mass. Dairy Farmers Association West Lynn vs. Mass. Ag. Commissioners Creation of Mass. Dairy Farmers Association '92 drought Value added "niche" marketing and co-ops are the only way to survive
	Personal	Global	Valley
The Present	Condo Flip turns lap-swimming Work to fight hunger Agriculture educator and farmer MACC president and landscape design Gardening District Conservation Educational programs for migrant children Work for state legislator Farmer/student Educator and environmentalist Establish organic farm Farm manager and educator Graduate student, gardener Weaver, community counselor Con Com member Board of Health Librarian, mom, food consumer Director, Mass Rural Development Council Loan officer, CDC Big Sister/Little Sister Got Kellogg IFS grant Health educator, gardener Board member, urban agriculture ISIS, CISA, Nuestra Raices Garden, heal Supermarket management Facilities management Journalist Office manager and shepherd	Farmer legislators Conservative political war on the community CISA PVASA Sustainable agriculture Sustainable community and family life Twice as many farmers over 55 as there are under 30 Food pyramid Proposition 187 Kellogg IFS initiative BGH	C&S opens in Hatfield Total 2500 acres of riverfront land is protected by conservation restrictions Resurgence of tobacco acreage Rapid decrease in number of dairy farms Centralization of Farm credit Clarification of land in agriculture use and normal maintenance and improvement under Mass. Wetlands Protection Act Agricultural regulations Big Y purchases Rexnord Building

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