To anthropologist Michael Paolisso's way of thinking, farmers should be strong allies in protecting rural landscapes and watersheds. But Paolisso, an associate professor at the University of Maryland who has studied farming and fishing communities, argues that the Bay restoration effort has not found a way to enlist their full support. The environmental community, says Paolisso, has failed to tap the deep values of those who work the land and the water — farmers and watermen — who have, he says, their own profound attachment to nature and their own sense of environmentalism.

According to Paolisso, farmers and watermen often find themselves responding primarily to regulations — and either agreeing to cooperate, or not. There needs to be a shift, he says, toward collaboration and what he calls "collaborative learning." All these different groups — regulators, conservationists, scientists, farmers and watermen — need to learn more about each others' "environmentalism."

Russ Brinsfield agrees that we don't engage the farmers enough, and don't give them credit for their ethics.

J.D. Wilkins has experienced these divisions firsthand. When Wilkins, who is both farmer and banker, speaks to farm groups, he often encounters a deep skepticism about the Bay cleanup effort, and the science. Wilkins hails from high up in the watershed in Circleville, West Virginia, and represented the state of West Virginia on the Blue Ribbon Finance Panel appointed last year by the governors of the six watershed states.

"I have a PowerPoint presentation I've put together that shows a lot of data and information," he says, "but for farmers it's not so much about the data, as about people, and trust."

"You can see a farmer tense up when an environmentalist approaches him at one of these meetings," Wilkins says. "He expects to be blamed for something."

Wilkins says that farmers often don't accept the science that's presented to them. "They [farmers] don't believe the current model," he says.

The model Wilkins refers to is the computer model used by the Chesapeake Bay Program to estimate nutrient and sediment loads and to set allocations for the different jurisdictions — maximum limits for nitrogen, phosphorus and other contaminants in their waters. According to Wilkins, farmers often point out that the model's numbers have changed before, and so they could change again. For example, modelers have lowered their estimates of reductions resulting from best management practices on farm fields. While the rationale, according to the Bay Program, is that some practices either were not used to the extent estimated or resulted in less of a reduction than originally thought, farmers see the changes as waffling, and question whether the "baseline" was correct to begin with, says Wilkins.

"A lot of farmers find it hard to swallow that they are responsible for all the nitrogen and phosphorus going into the Bay," says Shawn Maloney, a research associate in the University of Maryland Department of Anthropology. Maloney, who is now writing a doctoral dissertation for the University of Kansas on farmers and the environment, says farmers feel that the science presented to them is "one-sided," and they don't trust it.

Maloney points to the example of phosphorus in fertilizer, an example also raised by Balvin and John Brinsfield. For many years agricultural experts told farmers that they didn't need to worry too much about phosphorus. They were told to apply a little at the beginning of the season, and then mainly manage for nitrogen. Today that advice has shifted, and farmers hear that they must place a greater emphasis on curtailing phosphorus as well as nitrogen, since many fields in the Bay watershed now contain too much phosphorus.

Wilkins says he's come to believe that even if the science we have is imperfect, it's the best science available. "My suspicion is that the numbers put into the model are just about as good as what we've got."

The difficulty, according to Wilkins, Maloney and others, is not only getting farmers adequate money, but convincing them that they need to spend it on keeping nutrients out of the Bay.

The way Wilkins sees it, we need to de-emphasize our philosophical differences, and stop trying to change each other. "Everyone has their passion," he says. "It's like their religion. You don't have to convince the other side of your passion. When people try to 'convert' each other, the walls between them just get higher."

Herein lies the final irony. Farmers have a deep sense of doing what is right on their farm, but if pressured to "do right" for the "common good," they resist.

Wilkins thinks we should stick to specific measures that make sense for everyone — like improved feed pads. These hard-surfaced areas keep cows out of the mud and mire as they come to feed, and reduce dirt and bacteria on the cow's udders. At the same time, they reduce the runoff of mud and sediment into local streams. "We have to go to the little goals," he says.

The challenge, Paolisso says, is how to channel what has often been an antagonistic relationship — between farmers and government, between government and environmentalists of all kinds — into one focused on common interests and common values. In group meetings, Paolisso has brought regulators together with those they regulate, along with members of the scientific community, in order to explore discussions that break down walls that usually divide these groups.

He argues that if such groups can accept that there are multiple "environmentalisms," and if they can come to understand each other's core beliefs and models of what environmentalism can mean, then they will not only be able to better communicate with each other but will also be able to move together as stewards of the Bay and its watershed.

Our best hope, Wilkins, Paolisso and others seem to be telling us, is for farmers to tap their own natural ethic to do right by the land, and in this way to do right by the Bay.

"I believe in Providence, but also in sustainability," says John Brinsfield. He feels that farmers have to take the long view, to look out for their family's future. A while back, he says, the University of University of Maryland Extension had farmers in his area write a mission statement. One of the goals they identified was to leave the land better than they found it. "That's important to me," John says. "These core values."

Back on the farm, as Balvin leaves the shed and heads back to work, he does not have time to think too much about all these issues. For him it is mostly about the doing. He has to get his equipment ready for spring and decide whether or not to plant potatoes this year, and how much energy to put into peppers and sweet corn.

As the day wears on an afternoon light settles over these flat fields, on this land that still belongs to the descendents of grandfather Balvin Bacchus Brinsfield. It is a low-slanting light, cold and clear, and despite the winter landscape there is color on the fields, the pale hopeful green of cover crops.

Following in a farmer's footsteps, ten-year old Josh has already learned a lot about big rigs and working the land from his father, Balvin Brinsfield, on their farm near the Nanticoke River. Photograph by Skip Brown.

For More Information

Maximizing Return on Public Investment in Maryland's Rural Land Preservation Programs. 2004. Joseph Tassone et al., Maryland Department of Planning. Available from the Maryland Center for Agro-Ecology, Inc. agroecology.widgetworks.com/researchers.html

Downzoning: Does It Protect Working Landscapes and Maintain Equity for the Landowner? 2003. Rob Etgen et al. Available from the Maryland Center for Agro-Ecology, Inc. agroecology.widgetworks.com/policy.html

Finding Solutions to Excess Nutrients in Animal Manure and Poultry Litter: A Primer. 2004. Available from the Chesapeake Bay Program, Annapolis, Maryland or on the web at www.chesapeakebay.net.

Task Force to Study the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation: Final Report. 2004. Maryland Department of Planning & Maryland Department of Agriculture. www.ruralforvm.state.md.us/News/

Chesapeake Environmentalism: Rethinking Culture to Strengthen Restoration and Resource Management. Michael Paolisso. 2005. Chesapeake Perspectives. Maryland Sea Grant College, College Park, Maryland. For more about this report, see Et Cetera.

For a list of farmers' markets in Maryland, visit the web at: www.mda.state.md.us/md_products/farmers_market_dir.php

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