Sisters women support farmers

It's happening all over America. Small farms are dying, replaced with larger corporate farms. Its impact on American lives is staggering, not just in how it affects the displaced small farmers who have to blend in with the workforce, but in how it affects us, the consumer.

Local artist Kathy Deggendorfer is participating in a special project to give attention to small Oregon farms through art.

"Farmers, who I consider artists, have one painting a year, and it's their crop," Deggendorfer said.

Deggendorfer is working on a book about the Oregon farm.

"I have gone out to Millican and The Hatfield Ranch (cattle ranch in Brothers, Oregon), Imperial Stock Ranch in Shaniko, who raise sheep, and Liepold Farm (Boring, Oregon), an old strawberry growing family business. They still raise Tillamook and Hood strawberries, which don't have a long shelf life," she said.

After Deggendorfer appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting's Oregon Art Beat, Ben Williams, president of Friends of the French Prairie (FOFP) contacted Deggendorfer to introduce her to his organization. FOFP is a group of small farms who have formed a nonprofit to promote sustainable agriculture in Oregon. Their mission includes creating a brand for their products that will be recognized throughout Oregon. They started as a land-use organization protecting farm lands.

"You can fight to preserve farm land," said Williams, "but if farming isn't prosperous, if people can't make a good living, then they're not going to want to stay farming, so selling out becomes a viable option, an attractive option, and who do they sell out to? Industry."

"When the Oregon Trail people came to the gate of Eden (Willamette Valley), it was already farmed by the French Hudson's Bay trappers, many of whom married native women," Deggendorfer said. "They burned big sections of forest to raise food. They raised grapes for wine and made beer. The French Prairie guys lived long lives, 108 years. Some of the farms are fifth- and sixth-generation farms."

Williams talked about the micro trends tied to the local food movement, making it harder for the small farms to stay in business:

"If you look at the agricultural industry or direction at the national level, it's still corporate agriculture, which is to say, large acreage, lots of fertilizer, lots of herbicide, monoculture, and that's all tied to the economic model which is specialty food crops grown at principal locations and large amounts of transportation to get the food to market. So most of the asparagus isn't grown locally. It's grown in southern Arizona. Most of the lettuce is grown in southern Arizona and shipped all over the country."

What can possibly save the small farms in Oregon, especially in the Willamette Valley? Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSAs) are becoming popular. In North Portland there are sometimes 300 CSAs, Williams said, where individuals or families pay "x" amount to buy a share of the crop from a farm. Farms deliver a box of food every week and the food varies with the seasons.

"The micro trends are regional local farming," said Williams. "Local food, local production, and retailing and consuming that's connected to that. But what is required is a significantly different level of consciousness and awareness of perception of life and world view for it to be viable.

"These micro trends tied to the local food movement and regional sourcing are one of the streams of interest Kathy is working on, but it's still a challenge."

Williams took Deggendorfer on a tour of French Prairie farms. You drive by a field that's 40 acres of green beans and right next door is 40 acres of corn. You go by 100 acres of rye grass seed and then you come up on 20 acres of Italian flat beans. You turn the corner and there's 60 acres of pumpkins. Then you go down this road and there's 60 acres of cauliflower.

"Thinking long term," Williams said, "why does saving that land matter? Because we've got to eat, and if the current model is not sustainable, and it appears to be, how much longer can we be trucking all our food in from Southern California or from Arizona?"

Deggendorfer took her friend Pam Wavrin, owner of local restaurant Depot Café, on a tour of French Prairie and other Willamette Valley farms. Wavrin has a favorite vegetable stand near Champoeg, run by Sue Clark. Clark started the stand at the behest of her grandchildren, who thought she needed a "project" to keep her busy. She's growing food to help put her grandkids through college. Clark grows her produce on just two-and-a-half acres.

"This food tastes better because it hasn't gone through the production process. They have a lot of heirloom varieties," Wavrin said after preparing the foods she gathered for this fall's Sisters Art Stroll. "There are a lot of good planetary implications from farming this way."

Wavrin would like to see more local restaurants and businesses buying the produce.

"It's seasonal, and I also like it because it's stuff not everyone has," she said. "Sue (Clark) will pick it that day and I'm serving it the next day. From a shipper, it's at least five days old and doesn't taste as good."

Deggendorfer plans to return in the spring to visit working farms and continue to paint their story. Her Web site, http://www.kathydeggendorfer.com is a testament to her Oregon Farms Project.