As Fairfield County”™s corporate executives and hedge-fund managers were making hay this decade, little could anyone have realized they were living in the bread basket of the Northeast.
Same goes for the county”™s farmers.
According to a twice-a-decade census by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Fairfield County more than tripled its total farm area to just under 40,000 acres of land in 2007 ”“ a gain equal to converting a land mass the size of Danbury into pasture over a five-year period.
Likely a tall tale produced by distortions in reporting data, it was nevertheless by far the largest percentage increase in the Northeast, although the census similarly shows a 20,000-acre gain in New Haven County.
By comparison, neighboring Westchester County, N.Y., had double-digit percentage declines in both farms and total acreage. In all of New York state, just nine of more than 60 counties managed to increase the number of farms and total acreage.
Five of Connecticut”™s eight counties reported increases by both measures, along with four of five counties in Rhode Island.
None did so, however, at the exponential scale reported in Fairfield County. If by far the largest increase in the Northeast, USDA officials allowed that it is likely a fanciful figure due to either a clerical error, or one or more landowners reporting acreage not counted as farmland in previous censuses, including easements set aside by the state for potential farm use.
With USDA declining to make the original documents available on which Fairfield County farmers report their holdings and revenue, however, for the time being the figures serve as the official version of Fairfield County”™s agricultural profile ”“ which are used as the basis for any official government actions for the betterment of farmers.
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) counted 310 farms in Fairfield County, 23 more than in 2002, which produced $120,000 in crop or livestock sales on average, or $37 million in total revenue.
The USDA census depicts a slim majority of “gentleman” farms, in which the operation is not the primary occupation for the landholder.
The information was collected over a five-week period at the start of 2008, with the official census released this month.
If Norwalk-based Pepperidge Farm counts on America”™s breadbasket for the breads and cookies it bakes, it is clear that local homeowners are equally dependent on local nurseries for their garden needs. Whereas fruits and vegetables grown in Fairfield County accounted for just $2.5 million in total sales, about two in every three dollars generated in agricultural sales locally went to local plant and garden shops; and Christmas tree growers garnered another $1 million in sales.
The lone other significant product category was aquaculture, which generated $7 million from the sale of shellfish harvested locally, making it the only subsector not to rank dead last in Connecticut.
A USDA spokeswoman did not reject the possibility that the inflated Fairfield County agricultural acreage could be the result of a shellfish operation counting a portion of the Long Island Sound seabed as part of the ranch.
