To the editor:

Re: Arrowhead Farm and the Zoning Board of Appeals

On Feb. 20 the ZBA met to consider an appeal brought by the family who own Arrowhead Farm, Old Ferry Road, requesting relief from onerous regulations and directives recently levied against the farm. These specific regulations would benefit only the owners of a neighboring property (currently for sale) and are idiosyncratic to the city: They would most likely fail a legal test at the level of the commonwealth.

Some of the issues, such as specifics of fence lines and the appropriateness of certain posted signs, seem fairly petty given what is actually at stake, which is no less than the sustainability of the farm's basic operations: livestock breeding, a large greenhouse business and fruit orchards.

A farm is a farm and not a suburb. The area has always been agricultural, though it lies within the city, but fairly isolated at the end of the old road leading to the ferry landing where Gen. Washington crossed the river over 200 years ago. It has always been there. Little has changed over the 11 generations that the family has lived and farmed on that land.

Over the years, the city has "taken" large amounts of the most useful land for municipal purposes. The farm, which does not provide a very large tax base for the city, has already sacrificed more than its share for the public good.

A fairly recent addition of a single residential property abutting the farm cannot be allowed to carry more weight in deciding what the farm can and cannot do in the normal process of its seasonal work than the farmers themselves.

Arrowhead Farm is 323 years old and is still owned and run by the same family as first settled in this colonial town. This fact in itself would seem enough to induce city authorities to reach out with protective, not problematical, policies which will show that such a rare historical asset is valued by older residents as well as new.

Last year Arrowhead Farm opened a new greenhouse offering flowering plants and farm produce including eggs and honey. I worked there last season and was happy to see that the response of the community has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. The new program of livestock breeding (Boer goats and several breed of cattle) has been a big draw for young families in particular. Clearly this little farm adds a great deal to the quality of life that has led to the remarkable renewal of Newburyport as a place to live and work.

Everyone knows that in corporate America the few authentic family farms we still have left are on the endangered list, and Arrowhead is no exception. Do we want to keep our deeply rooted local farms alive, with all they add to the charm and wholesome amenities of our town? - fresh eggs, unprocessed local honey, naturally raised animal products, flowers for our yards and porches, farm tours and hayrides, our children laughing at the antics of baby goats, nursing calves and squawking chickens?

If we do, we need to support this old New England traditional way of life. We need to let our elected officials know that we want local food, not trucked in from thousands of miles away, hard and green, coated in paraffin, and grown with chemicals that degrade our environment and do our bodies no good.

Let's not burden our few old farms with regulations and demands that no small farm can sustain and survive.

MARY MISRAHI

Newburyport