Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
These days, it’s not uncommon to see goats, roosters and chickens in suburban communities in Massachusetts.
Many towns have adopted right-to-farm bylaws that protect local agriculture operations. In order to address concerns and complaints about working farms, many municipal governments have also created agricultural commissions to serve as mediators for residents, farmers and other municipal agencies.
According to Dick Ward, president of the Massachusetts Association of Agricultural Commissions, 160 towns have created local agricultural commissions. Ward estimated that at least two-thirds of those towns also have adopted right-to-farm bylaws.
Issues that arise range from noise complaints to the application of fertilizers, said Brad Mitchell, director of government relations for the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation.
Agricultural commissions, most of which have been created over the past decade, are non-regulatory and usually include a mix of both farmers and non-farmers, according to Laura Sapienza-Grabski, president of the Massachusetts Association of Agricultural Commissions and a member of the Agricultural Commission in Boxford.
One of the main duties of agricultural commissions, Mitchell said, is providing education and mediation between farmers and their municipal boards of health, who are often at the forefront of disputes between residents and farmers.
Mitchell described one example where the Farm Bureau Federation and a town’s agricultural commission stepped in to mediate after a neighbor made a noise complaint to the board of health about a blueberry farm’s use of a “bird cannon,” a device used to scare birds away from crops. In this case, Mitchell said, the goal of the commission was to educate the board of health and work with the farmer and neighbor to find a resolution to the noise complaint.
According to the Department of Agricultural Resources, farm acres in Massachusetts totaled 523,517 in 2012, with 7,755 working farms.
“A lot of people have come to appreciate local farmers more within the last few years,” Mitchell said, in part because of the buy-local movement and the trend of farm-to-table restaurants.