Letter to the editor
Winston Farm: a better plan, revealed
Permaculture expert Andrew Faust’s presentation at the September 18 Saugerties Town Board meeting was impressive and inspiring: a regional food hub consisting of a regenerative farm, including intensive vegetable production plus a small dairy, as well as a “food forest” of nut trees. This is a use for Winston Farm that looks to the needs of the actual future, working with nature instead of against it, as the currently proposed mixed-use commercial/residential development would do by bulldozing and paving large parts of the property.
Experienced in the development of such sites, Faust was confident that the funding required to get the project up and running would be found following the purchase of the property by a not-for-profit land conservancy. It’s known that the State of New York is interested in such a project as part of the state parks system. Furthermore, the project itself would create jobs for people who want to turn their hand to farming as well as the many other kinds of jobs required to keep a large agricultural operation going and create housing for those who work on the property, potentially hundreds of people.
On top of all these benefits, the kind of regenerative farm envisioned would be an educational center to teach how abundantly food can be produced while actually improving the land it’s grown on (permaculture farming methods restore degraded soils to health and productivity). This would put Saugerties on the map for visitors and students from all over the region, even the nation.
The only people who would not benefit as much as they dream would be the current owners, but even they could turn a profit, albeit a smaller one. They are constantly held up as public benefactors. They could do nothing greater for their legacy or for the town they claim to love than allow Winston Farm to become a blessing instead of a blight. We have to and we must give up on the old economic model of limitless growth and destruction and move bravely and beautifully into the life-sustaining possibilities offered by people with vision of what our needs will truly be in the future and how to meet them, starting now.
Janet Moss
Saugerties
