To The Editor,

I am writing to you out of concern for agriculture in Wareham. I graduated from Wareham High School in 2013, and am now a sophomore in the Agricultural Science program at Morrisville State College.

When I was little I traveled back and forth to Pennsylvania to visit my grandparents and always seemed happy. I learned to bale hay, raise cattle and ride horses, but, most importantly, I learned to love the ground I walk on each day. The town of Knoxville, Pennsylvania, is small; however, the hearts that live there are big. It was evident to me that agriculture is a big part of that. For example, residents of Knoxville even switched bulls for breeding to help diversify their farms.

I always loved learning about agriculture. I realized when I went to college, the word, “agriculture” didn’t just mean cranberries. Agriculture is raising crops but it also means feeding, breeding and caring for livestock, something Wareham doesn’t have much of.

In 2014, ground was broken for the addition of a Super Walmart in West Wareham on Cranberry Highway. Through another article put in the newspaper titled “Walmart breaks ground in West Wareham”, by Nick Walecka, I found out that this property is 26 acres. What was left after that was used for smaller businesses, and the article states, “A back parcel of land will remain undisturbed.” My real question is, how much land will be left in West Wareham after that? By no means am I trying to say that we should stop building the Super Walmart. But we are not only spending a lot of money to build on this property, we are also taking the homes of several wild animals.

Why couldn’t we bring in more money with agriculture? I thought of a few ways I would do it myself, including a petting zoo with a farm stand or an agricultural education center, so we could teach more about agriculture from crops to animals.

Wareham could also bring in a lot of extra money by conducting agricultural tours. When doing research on this, I discovered that agriculture brings 72% of revenue in Massachusetts. We can see that adding more agriculture to our town can help us bring in more money for our town and state. When discussing agriculture in Massachusetts, the fact that pilgrims stayed in Plymouth was because of the land to farm on. Pilgrims didn’t decide to stay in Massachusetts for the amount of stores. They stayed because of the agricultural opportunities.

I want to see more opportunities in Wareham for those who have fallen in love with agriculture, maybe a local FFA chapter or 4-H Club. This would allow everyone to gain knowledge about agriculture. I believe that by doing this, our town would become closer and, instead of being a town, be a family.

Emily Lowe

Sophomore, Agricultural Science, Morrisville State College