New Hampshire Agrarian Commons

New Hampshire has a long and varied history of agricultural production, beginning more than 3,000 years ago with the Indigenous Abenaki and Pennacook peoples who cultivated corn, beans, squash, and tobacco. From the 1600s onward, farmers of European descent typically established small subsistence farms alongside commercial sheep and dairy operations as well as orchards. 

By the 1930s, approximately half of the state was held as farm or pasture land. By 1990, acreage in agriculture had dropped by 85 percent from where it was in 1900 (from 3,250,000 to 480,000 acres). During the same period, as thousands of farms were abandoned, forested land increased from 22 percent of all land to 87 percent. 

Despite this, New Hampshire has seen significant regrowth of farming in recent years. New Hampshire and is home to about 60 farmers’ markets—or roughly 1 farmers’ market for every 22,600 people. By 2007, the state ranked first in the nation for direct sales between farms and consumers. Steady population growth combined with increased demand for local, organic produce represents a unique opportunity to revitalize New Hampshire’s agricultural sector and connect a new generation to the land.