Optimism is great until it collides with the reality of farming. Even at this wonderful time of the year, so full of potential, things can become pretty discouraging on the farm. Alex, the "always on the move" Farm Manager, decided to move on. He found an opportunity where he could "do his own thing" without having to accommodate someone else's already existing system.

And then there's the weather - too wet and way too cold once again. It might seem reasonable to think that after the driest year on record was followed by an extremely cold and wet year, we might expect something in between the two extremes, a year when the weather could be described as "normal" or "average." But I'm afraid it's not reasonable to expect normalcy anymore, after the changes we've brought about in our atmosphere. The first symptom of global warming is the disruption of normal weather patterns. We should expect that weather that used to be considered extreme will now become the norm. And perhaps we should also expect the consequences of extremes in temperature and precipitation, such as irregular crop yields, abnormal pest problems and excessive erosion.

At Maysie's Farm, erosion has recently become a major problem in one area, washing the precious topsoil (so high in organic matter, so full of life) away from about 20% of the bed space in Field 2. We developed and implemented a USDA-approved Conservation Plan for the farm in 1987, and installed erosion control practices such as diversions and a waterway in the fields on the slope of Black Horse Hill. These practices would be expected to control even the extreme precipitation we've had since the drought of '99 ended. So what's causing the erosion? It's not the weather, it's the much greater problem that's threatening agriculture in Chester County and elsewhere: it's the neighbors, the ever increasing number of neighbors and their less than adequate strategies for managing storm water run-off. A couple of months ago, I spoke with the owner of one of the commercial properties that borders the farm and he was very willing to accept responsibility for any problems that originate on his property. The difficulty is determining, to everyone's satisfaction, which other properties are also involved in creating the problems. So the Township Engineer and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Chester County Conservation District have all been called in to participate, and, now that we're moving at the speed of government, nothing has been done about the situation. Does anyone know how we might acquire some truckloads of clean, high-quality topsoil to cover the rocks and subsoil that lie exposed where we will need to be planting vegetables in the next couple of weeks? Importing topsoil is not in the budget.

If this ever increasing number of neighbors, this rampant development we've been experiencing, is already creating problems in such easy to manage areas as storm water runoff, what does the future hold for harder to monitor systems such as the ground water budget? Because, in terms of development, "we ain't seen nothing yet." Along Route 100, in the three miles between Ludwig's Corner and the village of Eagle, 2200 new homes have been approved! Not 22 or 220, not proposed or suggested, 2200 new homes approved. And then, at the Turnpike interchange, four miles from the farm, a corporate center will be built which will employ 10,000 people. (I understand that Toll Brothers, who will be building 208 homes in what they call "The Reserve at Eagle," are only showing the future home sites (now farm fields with bulldozers) on weekends, since the amount of traffic that already clogs Route 100 on weekdays would scare prospective buyers away.) These are not minor changes to our quality of life we're looking at here. These are not minor demands that are being put on our already abused ecosystem.

And even as these people pave over some of the best agricultural soils in the world, they will probably want to eat - they will probably even expect to be fed low-cost food in abundant quantities. Will they have to sacrifice both food quality and food security? Will they have to accept that their food will be coming a great distance from places subject to political or ecological change over which they have no influence? What will happen when California acknowledges its water crisis as well as its energy crisis? Or when third world countries begin to reject corporate colonialism and decide to feed their own people rather than export food for foreign exchange? When that happens, what kind of farms will still be surviving here in Chester County, the most rapidly developing county in the state? Well, CSAs, I hope; small, diversified, direct marketing, sustainable farms that have the support of their communities.

If we think of that as good news, to those of us dedicated to promoting Community Supported Agriculture anyway, then it at least lets me lead into some other good news stories. (Yes, optimism dies hard, especially in the spring.)

Karline Faust is a good news story at the farm, though she's not new here. She first came to Maysie's Farm as in intern in May of 1998, having graduated from Oberlin College in mathematics (in three years) and having spent some time in Costa Rica and Hungary. In November of that year, when she was about to return to her home in Illinois, she very conveniently fell in love with Andrew Faust, the teacher from Upattinas Alternative School who brings his Bioregionalism class to the farm every Tuesday during the school year. That kept her in the area, working at least part time on the farm, until she and Andrew got married last April (on Earth Day, no less). Then they spent last summer camping on some ground they'd purchased in West Virginia, beginning the construction of their straw bale house and planning the vegetable farm they will be establishing there. In September, they returned to this area so Andrew could teach another year at Upattinas and Karline could recover from Lyme disease and then work on the farm until they move permanently to West Virginia in June. When Alex vacated the Farm Manager's position, I considered us very fortunate to have someone as capable, conscientious and pleasant to work with as Karline to assume the position, even if only on an interim basis. So we are still looking for a permanent Farm Manager, but in the meantime, Karline is out there sharing with the interns the knowledge she's gained from her years on the farm, answering their questions so that productivity isn't handicapped by my being too busy with indoor work and ensuring an enjoyable work environment.

Abby Youngblood is another former intern who is moving on to exciting work in agriculture. In the spring of 1999, after two years as a physics major at Bryn Mawr College, she decided to take a year off. She spent a few months in Russia, worked as a counselor at an astronomy camp in Arizona and then spent several months at Maysie's Farm before joining an Americorp project in New Hampshire for the rest of the year. When she returned to Bryn Mawr last fall, she decided to finish her bachelor's degree in physics this year and then pursue her interest in agriculture. She applied for a Watson Fellowship to spend a year studying agriculture at the local level in Russia, India and Kenya. Although the fellowships are extremely competitive, I'm not a bit surprised that she was awarded one. Congratulations Abby! We hope to hear from you as often as possible.

Congratulations are also in order for two Philadelphia high school students who were recently awarded the first ever Sustainable Agriculture Awards at the Delaware Valley Science Fair. These awards, another brilliant idea from Louise Smith, were given by PASA (the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture) and good old Maysie's Farm Conservation Center. Although the Science Fair does not include a category on agriculture, some of the projects in the biology, botany and environmental sciences categories were relevant to sustainable agriculture.

So, if there are kids in Philadelphia creating excellent research projects in the field of sustainable agriculture, if there are people such as Karline and Abby, who are applying their considerable talents to the advancement of agriculture, if there are at least a few pieces of open space being preserved amongst the developments and if there are enough people who strongly care about the quality of their foods, then I'd like to think that there may be hope for feeding our expanding population. It will take all those things - farmers, farmland and dedicated community support. So please, be forceful in your support for sustainable agriculture. To fail to do so could have disastrous consequences.