Category: Produce

At Sunset Farm in Amherst, owners Connie and Bill Gillen have integrated the social fabric of community into the core of their farming operations. Located conveniently within walking and biking distance from the University of Massachusetts campus, this 10-acre farm specializes in vegetables and flowers, fostering a unique pick-your-own model that invites neighbors, students, and visitors to engage directly with the land.

The Gillens, who ventured into farming over five decades ago alongside their respective careers in psychology and architecture, draw upon a rich family history of farming dating back to the 1860s in Brooklyn, New York. Today, Sunset Farm is not only a testament to agricultural resilience but also a living museum showcasing functional farming history through its vintage tractor collection, including a Ford 9N from 1937 and a blue 8N from 1948.

Sunset Farm’s unconventional approach extends to its crop management and visitor experience. With 100 labeled rows of crops and a golf cart for easy navigation, the farm encourages self-harvesting, supported by daily email updates from “The Gillen Collaborative” that blend agricultural education with social commentary. This communication strategy not only informs but also builds a sense of community among the farm’s followers.

While the farm’s produce range is extensive, with 800-1,000 tomato plants among other vegetables, it notably excludes common pick-your-own fruits like blueberries, focusing instead on watermelons and cantaloupes. This choice reflects the Gillens’ commitment to offering crops that resonate with the diverse backgrounds of their visitors, including unique varieties that appeal to international communities in Amherst.

The social interactions fostered by Sunset Farm extend beyond the picking seasons, with events like the annual chestnut harvest becoming community traditions. Bill Gillen’s philosophy that “nature has a schedule” underscores the farm’s alignment with the natural rhythms of the land, inviting the community to partake in the bounty at its peak.

Aside from the pick-your-own experience, Sunset Farm maintains a presence at the Amherst Farmers Market, where it has been a staple for over 50 years, and operates a 24/7 farm stand known for its vibrant yellow hue and historic significance to Amherst’s town common.

Read the full article on Amherst Bulletin.

Advocates for former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris on ag policy clashed over trade, immigration and tax issues during an informal debate Monday.

“The four years of the Trump presidency was defined by chaos and uncertainty for the farm economy and the outlook for a second term would be even more severe,” asserted Rod Snyder, a Democrat who recently stepped down as director of EPA’s first Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

But Kip Tom, who’s leading the Farmers and Ranchers for Trump Coalition, used the forum sponsored by the Farm Foundation to attack the Biden-Harris administration for its regulatory agenda and what he said was inaction on trade policy.

Tom, an Indiana farmer who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations food and agriculture programs during the Trump administration, said overregulation has been the driving force behind recent food inflation, not price manipulation by big food companies.

“We have collapsing farm incomes. We’ve got a growing trade deficit. We have the tax policies which are a threat to our industry. We have the overreach of some agencies, agencies that should be working to help us bring these new innovations to market, yet they slow us down,” he said.

Repeating the attack on Biden’s trade policy, Tom said, “We’re going to deal with several years of surplus here. We’re going to deal with several years of lower farm income, all because of lack of trade under the Biden-Harris administration.”

Snyder repeatedly brought up Trump’s trade war with China, saying it cost farmers $29 billion in 2018 and 2019 alone while “undermining markets that took decades for our farmers to build.”

Snyder noted that Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board tariffs of up to 20% on imports and to raise tariffs to as much as 60% on China. Snyder said the retaliation that would result would fall on farmers, hurting their exports and raising the cost of inputs. “That is not a sustainable outcome. … I just think it’s bad, bad news.’

Snyder also said Trump’s threat to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants threatened to exacerbate ag labor shortages. “President Trump would prefer to throw our country’s farms and food system into chaos, rather than forge a meaningful solution to the decades-long problem,” Snyder said.

Snyder accused Trump of leaving U.S. biofuel policy in “disarray” in part by granting small refinery waivers that significantly reduced the amount of biofuels that had to be used under the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Snyder also pushed back on Tom’s criticism of Harris’ proposals to stop price gouging by food companies. “We’re not talking about food price caps… we’re talking about companies that have demonstrated they’re willing to break the law in times of a crisis,” Snyder said.

Defending Trump’s trade policy, Tom noted that Trump negotiated reductions to trade barriers imposed by Japan and other countries. Tom also pointed out that Biden had left in place key tariffs that Trump had imposed.  “We’ve had no trade deals under the Harris administration, none,” Tom said.

In an apparent allusion to Trump’s payments to farmers after starting the trade war with China, Tom said, “He took care of us before, when he [raised tariffs] originally, and then he’ll take care of us this time, too.”

On tax policy, Tom raised concerns about the estate tax and preserving stepped-up basis for inherited assets. Stepped-up basis means that the capital gain on an inherited asset is calculated from the date that the original owner died, rather than when he or she acquired the property. Under current law, heirs don’t owe taxes until the assets are sold.

“We’ve got to make sure we have tax policy that allows farmers to continue in the future,” Tom said.

Snyder downplayed benefits to farmers of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and noted that extending provisions that expire next year, including a doubling of the estate tax exemption, would cost more than $4 trillion over 10 years. 

“I certainly don’t think it’s average farmers and ranchers across the United states that are seeing the most benefit from” the TCJA, Snyder said.

Tom repeatedly came back to the issue of regulations, saying at one point that regulations issued under the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act needed to be rolled back.

Tom downplayed the deportation threat, saying he had recently met with poultry producers and processors who insisted they relied on workers who were in the country legally. “So, I’m not worried about them being raided and losing their workforce, but we do have an illegal immigration problem that needs to be solved,” he said.

Tom also stressed the importance of the H-2A program, which allows farms to import workers for temporary work.

One issue that didn’t come up directly was Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claim that Trump has embraced his effort to address a childhood health crisis that Kennedy blames in part on the food industry and agriculture.

Still, Tom brought up the issue of ultraprocesssed foods, saying at one point, “There’s no question that ultraprocessed foods are probably things we shouldn’t be buying.”

For more news, go to Agri-Pulse.com.

By Sebastian Ramírez

Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) imposed new rules on the use of agricultural water during pre-harvest for fresh produce exported to the U.S.

The new measures, which seek to identify conditions that are reasonably likely to introduce known or reasonably foreseeable hazards to produce or food contact surfaces, were detailed by Mississippi State University professor Juan Silva during the 8th Jalisco Avocado Congress, held in Mexico.

The food science expert explained that, specifically, the regulation seeks to determine whether corrective or mitigating measures should be implemented, and in what timeframe, to minimize the risks associated with pre-harvest agricultural water.

Related article: Challenges for Mexico to remain at the helm of the avocado market

For avocados, in particular, the safety challenges lie in pesticide residues, and pathogens such as salmonella, which has been found on some occasions in imported products.

However, Silva said, “Fortunately for avocados, the rejection rate for pesticide residue violations is very, very low.”

He also highlighted the risk of Listeria monocytogenes, a pathogenic bacterium that causes listeriosis and is almost always associated with packaging or already processed products, such as guacamole. He assured that this pathogen is the one that has caused the most product rejection for avocados and that, therefore, there is an import alert in force.

“In terms of listeria, environmental contamination and contamination in packaging or processing plants is the main cause,” Silva said.

Pre-harvest water

The first thing for Silva was to define what agricultural use water is, which he said “is the water that touches the harvestable part of the product. For example, according to the regulation, in most cases, irrigation water is not agricultural water; however, if the same source is used for applications, it does fall into the category.

Silva told the attendees that what the FDA regulation seeks is “that you make an evaluation of your water system, from the source to the point of use, to identify the potential hazards in that distribution system and then take action”.

Producers must do an annual inspection of their distribution system to see if the source is clean and take corrective action.

In addition, they must do an assessment, which seeks an analysis of the entire water system, to include what possibilities there are for contamination of that water system, both immediately and in the long term.

“First we must look at the components of the water system and make an assessment of those components, both the impact of animals and the impact of amendments, or the impact of our neighbors,” Silva said, adding that ”if there is one or more possibilities of contamination in those different activities that we carry out, then we have to take measures.”

Contamination factors

Sources of contamination in a water system can be multiple, including livestock, wildlife, and even birds.

Silva gave the example that if a fruit plantation abuts a producing cow farm or chicken coop, these can contaminate the product through direct contact or the air.

“There are already FDA cases in which the presence of animals near production fields has contaminated harvested fruit products,” he said.

A septic tank near a plantation can also be a major source of contamination.

Shared water sources provide another challenge, as they are not under the farmer’s full control, so Silva suggested looking for alternatives.

However, he said that “there are very few cases in which evaluation is not required, for example, if they use municipal water, drinking water”.

What to do with contaminated water

A water analysis may show contamination if, for example, there is a dead animal in the source or if there is flooding affecting the source, or if a positive result is found for any pathogen.

In this case, Silva indicated that according to the regulation, “they have to suspend the use of the water and take corrective measures, which can be, to look for an alternative source or to treat the water.”

Once the corrective measures are taken, the water system must be re-inspected to make sure the corrective measures work.

“In areas of the U.S. with high pathogen incidence, growers start treating water 10 days before the start of harvest to prevent outbreaks,” he said.

Specifically, the new regulation obliges fruit growers – under the aforementioned conditions – to take the corresponding water analyses on an annual basis.

In the face of obvious contamination risks, preventive measures must be taken to minimize the risk of contamination and, in the face of a positive result for pathogens in field tests, water sources may not be used until the sources of contamination are corrected and the tests show negative results.