The nation's oldest, continuously-producing mint farm is auctioned off as part of foreclosure proceedings, in a country where the government will pay millions to support CAFOS, and farms that produce high fructose corn syrup....
Standing near the 1940s still at the oldest continuously producing mint farm in the United States, I closed my eyes, and sunk into the incredibly intense and cleansing smell of distilled peppermint oil. I was on the Crosby Mint Farm because the property had been auctioned off at the County Courthouse earlier in the day. After a tearful two hours of suspense, confusion and resolve, the owners of the farm founded by their great-grandfather in 1912 invited supporters back for a tour of all that we stood to lose.
The Crosby Mint Farm, located in St. Johns, Michigan, is one of only four working mint farms left in a small Michigan town that used to have over 60 such farms. St. Johns holds an Annual Mint Festival, complete with a parade down the main drag, and the crowning of a Mint Queen. The Crosby Farm has been included in two documentary films, and is farmed using sustainable agricultural practices. No matter what your Big Issues are, from sustainable agriculture, to conservation, to historic preservation, to the dangers of factory farming, the Crosby Farm foreclosure story hits the nerves of any thinking observer.
There are many small farms struggling in the five counties that comprise Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, home of the Crosby Mint Farm. Fourth-term Republican Congressman Mike Rogers and his staff were conspicuously absent from the gatherings at the courthouse and the farm, despite the fact that he is "on break," and that his office had been contacted about helping the Crosbys.
Rogers’ Democratic challenger Bob Alexander spent the day with the Crosbys, from the Courthouse to the farm tour. This was not mere grandstanding for photo ops; Alexander has a long history of working in agriculture, and is particularly sensitive to the struggles faced by the small to medium farmers of Michigan who face rising energy prices, and the need to compete against government-subsidized agribusiness.
Farmers Jim and Linette Crosby have enough mint oil to pay off their loans if they can sell at retail prices, and have been working for months with risk management staff at GreenStone Farm Credit. Despite their patent ability to make good on the loan, and demonstrated interest in diversifying their crops to include potential alternative energy sources including switchgrass, GreenStone has foreclosed. The Crosbys have until early November to come up with the money necessary to save their equipment. If they somehow meet that deadline and keep the machinery necessary to plant, harvest and process their crops next year, they must still pay off the loan within twelve months or the Farm is sold to the highest auction bidder.
Wait, though, it gets more interesting: the attorney representing GreenStone Farm Credit at the auction was an associate at Trott & Trott, one of the stateTrott & Trott’s largest mortgage foreclosure law firms. At least one principle of the Trott & Trott firm donates to Mike Rogers, and the firm has hosted a number of fundraisers on behalf of the Representative. Rogers recently voted against H.R.3221, a bill that would help up to 400,000 families keep their homes in the face of foreclosure, and also supported the 2002 Farm Bill. The Farm Bill perpetuated the subsidies that benefit factory farming, CAFOs, and the preference for producing high-fructose corn syrup rather than a healthy variety of fruits and vegetables.
The Crosby Farm is emblematic of the loss to the District, the State of Michigan and the United States, if family farms are systematically destroyed by a combination of market conditions, and government subsidies that mainly benefit large-scale farms. Those large farms then can afford to sell their yield at the lowest possible prices, and to buy up smaller farms as they fail. It really shouldn’t be a partisan thing, whether we save the small family farms that historically comprised the fabric of many Michigan communities, or whether we reward businesses that are literally and figuratively "green." It shouldn’t be the case that its "liberal" to make a pledge to fight to save one little farm in Flyover Country. I only know what I see, though, and based on Mike Roger’s track record of support for factory farms and mortgage lenders, I am thinking that a guy like Bob Alexander who shows up, knows the issues, and promises to help is the guy we want in Washington next term.