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Dear friends of Massachusetts agriculture: 



The cover of this year's annual report depicts "Massachusetts Agriculture 

 in the Classroom," an exciting new project which was officially launched last 

 Spring with a successful field testing in fifteen schools across the state. 



Your Department of Food and Agriculture has called together a statewide 

 committee to help initiate this project and is cooperating with a wide variety 

 of agencies and individuals to extend it to an additional 125 teachers next 

 year. 



The innovative curriculum should help inform young people about farm and 

 food production -- the problems, the accomplishments and the outlook. In addi- 

 tion to providing food for a hungry world, American agriculture and related 

 businesses provide one out of every five jobs and substantially reduce our trade 

 deficit. Yet basic as agriculture is to our daily lives, it is a subject whose 

 importance is rarely understood by students or the general public. This is par- 

 ticularly true in states like Massachusetts where the number of farmers relative 

 to the total population is quite low. 



The Department continues to promote local agriculture and its products 

 through press releases to newspapers, radio and television stations. We have 

 also used exhibits to tell our story and assisted commodity groups in the promo- 

 tion of their products. 



Promoting profitability in agriculture is of course the best way to assure 

 that land will remain in production and, along with our farmland preservation 

 programs, market promotion remains a priority. In addition, we continue to 

 fulfill the goals of our regulatory programs to protect the farmer, the environ- 

 ment and the consumer. Particular emphasis has been placed on strenuous enfor- 

 cement of the pesticide laws and on the promotion of alternative production 

 techniques in an effort to reduce the overall pesticide load on the environment 

 as well as to reduce production costs. 



Total cash receipts from farm marketings for 1983 are down from the pre- 

 vious year due largely to a dramatic decline in planted acreage of tobacco. 

 A prolonged drought during the summer of 1983 also caused a decrease in produc- 

 tion for some of our vegetable crops. 



1984 has generally been a good year for agriculture in Massachusetts, 

 though this past Spring's deluge of rains and flooding will undoubtedly show up 

 on next year's statistics. We are grateful to Governor Dukakis and to the 

 Legislature for their speedy response to the call for funding for the 

 Department's emergency flood relief program. 



We hope you will take time to study this report which is my tenth and final 

 one as your Commissioner. I trust that you will call us at the Department of 

 Food and Agriculture if you have any comments or suggestions. It has been a 

 pleasure and an honor to work with the many dedicated agricultural groups, 

 state and federal agencies, individuals and organizations across the state 

 during my term of office. I know you will provide my successor with the same 

 tremendous support that you provided me over the last decade. With best wishes 

 for a bright future. 



, Sincerely,! 



/ Frederic Winthrop,''jr. 



/ Frederic Winthrop, 

 i Commissioner 



