Meet Juli Brussell

As testament to her passion for “eating local,” when Juli Brussell migrated with her husband Kevin from Illinois to New Hampshire last fall, she insisted on hauling along a large freezer full of their own beef, their homegrown vegetables and their neighbor’s lamb and chickens.

 

“We brought a long extension cord and plugged in the freezer when we stopped for the night,” Brussell says. “Sadly, we had to leave behind 12 varieties of heirloom tomatoes in full production.”

 

Brussell began work October 4 th as the new UNH Cooperative Extension agricultural resources program leader, with a focus on small farms.

A diverse background

Brussell comes to UNH Extension with a diverse academic and professional background that includes early work in chemistry, geography and sociology, a B.S. in geology, and a broad-field science teaching certificate. Her M.S. in land resources included a thesis on value-added, on-farm processing and direct marketing to build a more sustainable food system. She completed all the coursework for a double doctorate in geology and archeology, lacking only the dissertation.

 

Brussell has held jobs in both government and the private sector as water resources policy and planning analyst, hydrogeologist, technical editor of Earth magazine, director of a sustainable ag program, and as a coordinator for small farm enterprises and sustainable foods marketing.

 

Over the years, Brussell has held posts on many regional and national boards and committees. She currently sits on the board of the Organic Farming Research Foundation and the steering committee of the Scientific Congress on Organic Agriculture Research.

 

Through both academic and professional work, she developed expertise in direct marketing, on-farm value-added enterprises, organic/sustainable agriculture, grass-based livestock management, and public policy development.

 

After marrying Kevin Brussell seven years ago, she lived and worked on his family’s fifth-generation, 500-acre Illinois farm, which produces a wide diversity of crops and forages, including certified organic grains and beans. “With Kevin, I’ve had the experience of working with three management systems simultaneously: conventional, transitional, and certified organic,” she says, adding “I’ve experienced farming under a lot of adverse conditions, including one familiar to many New Hampshire farmers—poor soil and very wet planting conditions.”

 

Q. After spending your entire professional life in the Midwest, why did you decide to apply for and accept a job in New Hampshire?

A. The strongest base for our nation’s community food system lies within the strength of our smaller family farms. Ninety-five percent of New Hampshire’s farms are classified as small. The focus in Illinois is still big agriculture. It’s not where I wanted to focus my energy.

 

Also, I was looking for a community of interest that included an academic community where I’d find resources and people with curiosity.

 

What have you found as a newcomer to the GraniteState?

I’ve found a good energy, a commitment on the part of citizens to being involved—involved in politics, in lively public discourse. People here are willing to let you know what they think. I find that openness engaging and very hopeful. I also find engaging and hopeful the fact that New Hampshire is small enough to build relationships that can make statewide partnerships work.

 

What do you perceive as the main challenges to New Hampshire agriculture?

Our growing agricultural diversity, which I consider one of our greatest strengths, also stands out as one of our greatest challenges. It’s really tough for an individual or a family to have to juggle all the production requirements for diverse crops, handle all the tasks involved in marketing and distribution, as well as maintaining a strong, sane and balanced life.

 

Another challenge I see: How do we find our place in this changing structure of agriculture nationally? How do we carve out a role for family farmers that embodies their importance to New Hampshire’s quality of life? Our farms are in jeopardy. How do we create a place within people’s hearts? How do we motivate people to make room for farms in their culture?

 

Farmers need increased community support. Community members need to engage with their local farms by buying their products, by ensuring farmers have access to capital, by developing a processing infrastructure. Communities need to recognize the multiple benefits of maintaining their farm infrastructure. Farms are low on demands for tax-supported services. They provide green space and offer aesthetic appeal. They pollute less than competing land uses. They recharge water supplies. Every dollar spent at a local farm circulates in the local economy.

 

How would you characterize the major opportunities for New Hampshire agriculture?

One of the opportunities for New Hampshire farmers lies in the production of on-farm “artisan” foods, food products that achieve uniqueness by dint of their craftsmanship. Artisan foods are uniquely linked to what the French call the terroir—a term loosely translated as “sense of place,” the way a food product uniquely reflects the attributes of geography, microclimate, vegetation. The flavor of an artisan cheese uniquely reflects the vegetation the cows or sheep grazed upon.

 

Both Vermont and Maine are actively exploiting this new relationship between people and their food. Increasingly consumers say they want a more direct relationship with their food and the people who grow it.

 

New Hampshire farmers have the opportunity to develop many new forms of “agri-tourism” beyond the fact that a vibrant agriculture contributes to all tourism, since people don’t come here to look at condo developments and strip malls. A farm that can’t make it on sales of farm products alone can market itself as a destination site that provides that connection to the land urban residents are so hungry for.

 

I also believe we have an opportunity to expand our livestock operations here in New Hampshire, especially in the realm of organic dairying, grass-fed beef and lamb, even pork and poultry. We’ve already begun to discuss the infrastructure needed to accommodate this expansion. I can also envision systems that integrate livestock into fruit and vegetable production.

 

Sustainable/organic agriculture stands out as a strong feature of your resume. Given the rising interest among both consumers and new growers in organic production, how would you go about healing the perceived rift between conventional and organic production systems?

First of all, it’s not a perceived rift, but a real one. I think there are a couple of attitudes we need to bring to the table. Given the dwindling number of farmers in the population at large, it’s not in anybody’s interest to increase the divisions between us. The public doesn’t really understand the distinctions between organic and conventional farming. When we start talking about “those farmers over there; they’re doing the wrong thing,” it hurts us all.

 

There are a couple of issues we need to bring to the table here. The first is the increasing limitation to introducing toxins into the environment. This is starting to limit the arsenal of chemicals available to farmers.

 

A related issue is the growing trend [among lawmakers and policymakers] to hold farmers liable for the consequences of using these toxins. This leaves farmers open to the possibility that they will have to pay for ag-chemical remediation. We need to acknowledge that possibility for litigation, and with that knowledge, work with farmers to reduce their vulnerability.

 

You bring a lot of experience and interest in food production. Yet in New Hampshire ornamental horticulture far outpaces food production in terms of both acreage and gross sales.

I like to quote Kahlil Gibran on this issue: “If I had two loaves of bread, I would sell one to buy hyacinth, for it will feed my soul.” We have to get over the notion that growing ornamentals is less than agriculture. Agriculture is the conversion of solar energy into saleable products people find useful. I’m interested in systems that help farmers not just survive, but thrive, and if it takes growing ornamental crops to keep our growers thriving and their land open, we need to embrace that and enjoy the diversity it brings to our landscape. Diverse systems are more stable systems. Bringing stability and prosperity to our state is a worthy goal for our agriculture, isn’t it? UNH Cooperative Extension has the capacity and the mandate to bring this to fruition for all New Hampshire residents.