Bascom Farm

1462 S. Hemlock Rd., Charlestown, NH

www.bascomfarm.com

Artist: Linda Diak

Products: Organic vegetables, grass-fed lamb, mushrooms

Where to buy: Farmers markets in Keene and Bellows Fall; on-farm CSA

Small, diverse farms support resilience

We need to get back to the roots of farming. Unfortunately, today’s food system in the United States is dominated by industrial agriculture. This approach treats farms more like crop factories than dynamic, living systems. Millions of acres of industrial farmland create air, water, and climate pollution, require ever-increasing amounts of harmful chemicals to produce food, and are unable to be nimble and adaptive in the face of ever-changing climate impacts. The good news is, small farms actually still feed most of the world.

Donna and Dean Bascom of Bascom Farm know family farms are both our past and our future. “There is plenty of land that could be utilized to produce food that’s not applicable for industrial-scale farming but for smaller-scale producers,” Donna said. “Many of them could out-produce industrial farms who are going to face the biggest disruption from climate change.”

Small-scale farmers are already adapting to climate change and experimenting in this new reality. Donna shared, “This season I am going to adapt by having more covered space. So I’m investing in caterpillar tunnels, for example. I’m also sequencing my crops so that I’m using tarps to cover a series of beds so that while we might experience more torrential rains, I can still seed them or plant them.” Making these adjustments year to year is difficult on an industrial scale.

An ecosystem of small and adaptable farms helps ensure food security. Many people saw how global supply chain disruptions impacted food access during the COVID-19 pandemic. Small local farms stepped up to feed their communities when many grocery stores had empty shelves.

“We believe that small is beautiful … that many small farms producing food together are necessary to build a resilient food supply for communities, one that will be there during times of great climate and infrastructure disruption.”