Soule: When Farmers Meet, What Do They Talk About? I'll Tell You.

Farmers are solitary people. We love our crops, animals, families, and privacy. But once a year, we hobnob with other farmers at the annual New Hampshire Farm Bureau Federation meeting. NHFB has 3,000 member families spread over our ten counties. Each county organization has a local board, and a different county hosts the annual meeting. It was Merrimack County's turn this year, and the Grappone Conference Center in Concord was the venue.

The meeting included a conference of two to three elected delegates from each county. In the morning session, twenty-four members voted on policies important to New Hampshire farmers. These policies guide Rob Johnson, NHFB Policy Director, when lobbying for farm-friendly laws in the New Hampshire Legislature.

For instance, NHFB supports the New Hampshire Current Use law that has recently been attacked. Suppose this law, which reduces taxes on farmland, was rescinded. If farmland were taxed according to its value as a potential housing development instead of its lower value as a pasture, many farmers would be compelled to sell out.

Farmers who plow fields, fertilize crops, and fight weeds now have another foe: two-legged thieves. People who would never think of stealing from a grocery store will take squash, corn, and other crops from fields. Also costly to farmers are people who ride bicycles or motorbikes or even hike across fields, smashing plants and destroying crops. NHFB has worked to pass laws enhancing penalties for crop theft and agricultural vandalism as well as providing restitution for crop damage.

Other interlopers are bears and deer, who can eat crops or trample them in the dark of night. Hunting is an effective way to protect crops, but frustration bubbled from some NHFB members when they discovered game cameras put on their farms without permission.

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Carole Soule is co-owner of Miles Smith Farm, in Loudon, N.H., where she sells beef, pork, lamb, eggs, and other local products. She can be reached at carolesoule60@gmail.com.