Three small-farm operators from the Midcoast region spoke to Lincoln County Democrats on Oct. 14 and said their basic challenge is that food prices are not at a level high enough to support sustainable agriculture.

Alice Percy of Whitefield runs Treble Ridge Farm with her husband and is president of the board of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. Ben Marcus, also of Whitefield, operates with his wife the Sheepscot General store and the associated Uncas Farm. Rob Johanson, with his wife Jan Goranson, runs the Goranson Farm in Dresden. The program took place in the Newcastle Community Room.

Percy spoke of the “huge” growth of small-farm operations in Maine, which is one of the few states where the median age of farmers is going down instead of up. She added that MOFGA has been a big part of that through its farmer training programs. Unfortunately, she said, enthusiasm among young farmers by itself doesn’t pay the bills. “I honestly don’t know any young organic farmers who can say they’re making a comfortable middle class income.”

Ben Marcus spoke of the same difficulties that other young farmers face in making their farms profitable. His and his wife’s General Store is driving their operation currently, he said, and: “I’m still figuring out what to grow and what not to grow and how to grow things and what people want.”

He said a lot of young farmers are marketing their goods at farmer’s markets, but that is a limited and competitive outlet, and many of them are running up against a wall economically. He said he sees a real opportunity for the development of businesses that would support small-scale farms.

He noted the presence in the past of such businesses as canneries that played that role, and said farms like his could benefit significantly from business-provided services such as transport, storage and processing. He said he preaches daily about “bringing back what once worked.

Rob Johanson’s Goranson Farm began multi-crop production in the 1980s and now operates at a larger scale than that of many other organic farms in the state. Nevertheless, Johanson said, he and his wife are not even close to being able to afford to replace their decades-old tractors and trucks with new equipment. The farm’s model works, he said, only because of direct marketing — selling the farm produce directly to consumers at retail prices at five summertime markets and three winter markets, and through a 375-member community-supported-agriculture program.

The issue in farming is all about the real cost of food, Johanson said, explaining that supermarket food prices don’t reflect the costs inflicted on land and water resources by industrial farming practices, including the large animal feeding operations in the Midwest that he called an “environmental disaster.” Americans have to think about their children and their grandchildren, he said, and make a decision as a society whether to continue to accept such practices.

This meeting was the first of two events the Lincoln County Democrats are hosting during October to raise awareness of issues faced by local farmers. The next will be the Farmers’ Feast & Contra Dance, with a menu that features organic produce grown by local farmers. Dinner will be followed by contra dancing with music by popular local country musicians Toki Oshima and John Pranio. The event is on Sunday, October 25 at the Arlington Grange in Whitefield starting at 4:30.

The next Lincoln County Democrats meeting will be on Monday, November 16, and will feature political commentator Mike Tipping. For more information on the Lincoln County Democrats and the upcoming supper and dance, visit www.lincolncountydemocrats.com, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lincolncountydems.