A farm where 'small is beautiful'

DIGGING THE EARTH: Kris Larson (l.) and Dan Coblyn harvest sweet potatoes at Atlas Farm in Deerfield, Mass. 'You go to bed tired and you wake up a little less tired,' says Coblyn, quoting a farmer's axiom. JOHN NORDELL

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Mr. Porth is in his second year of running Atlas Farm, a patchwork of rented fields in the fertile lands that border the Connecticut River. Organic farms employ sustainable practices such as crop rotation, cover-cropping, and composting to boost soil fertility in lieu of using fertilizer. Small-scale intensive farming practiced by Porth is environmentally friendly but relies heavily on manual labor.

Porth's low-impact "small is beautiful" farm contrasts with high-input industrial organic farms, which burn large amounts of petroleum to grow and transport food. In California, some of these bigger farms use laser-guided land-levelers to create perfectly flat fields. That allows tractors with band-saw harvesters to cut the leaves. The shorn leaves fall on conveyor belts which transport them to mobile packing facilities. Vacuum-toting tractors suck bugs off plants, reducing the need for chemical insecticides.

It will take four or five days and thousands of miles before this mass-produced produce appears in salad bowls across New England. The food must be trucked across the country, adding to its price.

For Porth, there's a big difference between those organic goods and his greens. "There's organic and then there's fresh," he says.

At the farmers' market in Boston's Copley Square, Porth mixes easily with urbanites that pass his stall. Many customers are delighted by his produce. The positive comments make his 16-hour farmers' market days "the highlight of the week."

Each week, Jamaican-born Nicole Reed makes a beeline to the Atlas Farm stall. Although organic is trendy, it's also the original way to grow food, she notes. Her grandfather in Jamaica always grew food naturally. "No chemicals, just sunlight and rain."

MANUAL LABOR: Gideon Porth carries a 50-pound box of freshly cut cabbage. New England farmers have long benefitted from their proximity to densely populated areas. Porth's route to a farmers' market in Boston runs through Worcester County, which ranks fourth in the nation in sales of farm products directly to customers. JOHN NORDELL