Last November, local farmers came out in huge numbers for a discussion about how to use tax laws to protect farmland.

This time more than farmers were in attendance, as we were joined by municipal officials, businessmen, planners and economic developers from all over Franklin County. They had been invited by the town of Farmington to begin talking about why it was important to work with the agricultural community to make sure farming had a future in Franklin County.

At stake was not just the survival of the county's 300 farmers. Nor was it just about producing adequate amounts of food in these days of rising fuel and food costs and climate change.

The meeting was also about the role agriculture could play in the economic future of the county.

As one of those who organized the meeting (I wear two hats: Farmington farmer and Farmington Planning Board member), I see agriculture as a sleeping giant. A giant who could, with planning, be one of the primary forces driving the county's economic future.

Agriculture could help drive the economic future of much of the state. It did in the past; there is no reason it couldn't do so again in the future.

I have farmed the rich intervale soils of the Sandy River for 45 years, and I believe that farmers around the state are doing their part to prepare for the future. We are diversifying, creating new markets and becoming more sustainable.

In other words, we are doing what Maine farmers have always done: adapting to change.

Not only are we producing organic milk, some -- we call them niche farmers -- are producing cheese from that milk. Adaptation has been our key to survival and success in our constantly changing world, as Maine agricultural historian Clar-ence Day said.

But we farmers can't do it alone and shouldn't have to do it alone.

By asking for local support we aren't just asking families to buy locally grown food, we are talking about getting the political community to consider again how farmland -- land that is producing your food -- is taxed. We also are discussing getting the business community to invest in processing plants and storage facilities and transportation routes. And we are talking about developing new regional markets.

Not too long ago, local farmers could sell just about everything they grew to the canneries that flourished here from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.

There was one at the west end of Center Bridge in Farmington where MacDonald's now stands; another at the east end where the Health and Human Services offices now stand.

Beans, squash, corn and apples -- you name it, the canneries bought it, processed it and marketed it to the world. But the canneries are gone. So are the wood turning mills and the shoe shops and the poultry barns. The woods have been stripped almost bare.

They were the engines that drove our economy until recently.

But the prime farmland along the Sandy River, which wends its way through Franklin County, remains.

We can turn to the past and see the future in it. While I'm not advocating the return of the canneries, why not invest in creameries to manufacture organic cheeses, slaughterhouses to process our growing grass-based beef operations and free-range chickens and turkeys and corn to heat our homes and schools.

In other words, I am talking about agriculture as a tool for economic development. Not just for farmers, not just for Franklin County, but for much of the state of Maine.

As one agricultural expert told all of us that night, helping agriculture play a significant role in the state's economic development is not just about helping farmers be more viable and protecting farmland. It is about investing in transportation, education, technology, research, marketing, processing, production and financing. All of which create jobs and business opportunities for all of us.

It's not a new idea.

Towns in Oxford County are already looking at it, as shown by the recent formation of the River Valley Agricultural Commission, whose purpose is to identify an agricultural strategy to strengthen the presence and the benefits of agriculture in that area. At least one town in Franklin County is beginning to explore the idea.

The time is ripe for all of Maine to consider an old idea -- in a new form. Agriculture can be a mainstay of our state's economic future.

Herbert "Bussie" York of Sandy River Farms is a member of the Farmington Planning Board, Maine FarmLink Advisory Board of the Maine Farmland Trust and the Franklin County Committee Farm Service Agency.