Thu, 7 Dec 2023 19:31:20 +1100
Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>
<https://reasonstobecheerful.world/cranberry-growers-wetlands-restoration-massachusetts/>
"When Glorianna Davenport and her husband, Evan Schulman, decided in the early
2000s to stop growing cranberries after two decades in the business, they were
left with a difficult choice. They could sell their land, parts of which had
been farmed for well over a century, to a developer and watch it be “chopped up
into small lots,” as Davenport puts it. Or they could fight to keep it whole.
Cranberry bogs — naturally swampy areas infused with sand to create the ideal
growing conditions for the iconic North American fruit — have been a staple of
the Massachusetts landscape and economy for centuries. At the turn of the new
millennium, the industry was in a tough spot. An overabundance of cranberries
on the market from higher-yielding new cultivars in Wisconsin and Quebec had
caused prices to crash and then swing wildly, even after the federal government
started paying growers for surplus production. Some Massachusetts cranberry
bogs no longer made financial sense, and for farmers who had exhausted every
option to stay in operation, development was the only reliable way out. But it
wasn’t a fate those farmers wanted for the land they loved.
“Many of the smaller farmers are like fifth-generation,” Davenport says. “And
their property is what they have to pass on to their children.”
Though she and Schulman were only first-generation, they’d envisioned keeping
the roughly 600 acres of legacy farmland pieced together into Tidmarsh Farms in
their own family for many years to come. That looked unlikely if they kept
growing cranberries — and impossible if the land wound up in the hands of a
developer. So in 2008, Davenport retired from the media research lab she’d
founded at MIT and went all in on conservation. It was the beginning of a
multi-year effort to revive vanished wetlands that would bring new life not
only to her property, but to an entire industry increasingly burdened by
climate change, while doing some good for the climate in the process."
Via Future Crunch:
<https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-education-girls-crime-uk-ocean-conservation-new-zealand/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
"When Glorianna Davenport and her husband, Evan Schulman, decided in the early
2000s to stop growing cranberries after two decades in the business, they were
left with a difficult choice. They could sell their land, parts of which had
been farmed for well over a century, to a developer and watch it be “chopped up
into small lots,” as Davenport puts it. Or they could fight to keep it whole.
Cranberry bogs — naturally swampy areas infused with sand to create the ideal
growing conditions for the iconic North American fruit — have been a staple of
the Massachusetts landscape and economy for centuries. At the turn of the new
millennium, the industry was in a tough spot. An overabundance of cranberries
on the market from higher-yielding new cultivars in Wisconsin and Quebec had
caused prices to crash and then swing wildly, even after the federal government
started paying growers for surplus production. Some Massachusetts cranberry
bogs no longer made financial sense, and for farmers who had exhausted every
option to stay in operation, development was the only reliable way out. But it
wasn’t a fate those farmers wanted for the land they loved.
“Many of the smaller farmers are like fifth-generation,” Davenport says. “And
their property is what they have to pass on to their children.”
Though she and Schulman were only first-generation, they’d envisioned keeping
the roughly 600 acres of legacy farmland pieced together into Tidmarsh Farms in
their own family for many years to come. That looked unlikely if they kept
growing cranberries — and impossible if the land wound up in the hands of a
developer. So in 2008, Davenport retired from the media research lab she’d
founded at MIT and went all in on conservation. It was the beginning of a
multi-year effort to revive vanished wetlands that would bring new life not
only to her property, but to an entire industry increasingly burdened by
climate change, while doing some good for the climate in the process."
Via Future Crunch:
<https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-education-girls-crime-uk-ocean-conservation-new-zealand/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
