This morning, the Hamilton County Commission will consider the future of McDonald Farm as Randall Gross - out of his Nashville-based consulting firm - drives to town to present to the Commission and public an economic impact study on the "highest and best" uses for McDonald Farm.

The meeting begins at 9:30 am in the Georgia Ave. courthouse. At the end of the regular commission meeting, a citizen-group will offer its vision for the Farm. Concerned citizens are urged to attend.

McDonald Farm was a 20th century treasure: a 2,000-acre working farm.

Earlier this year, Mason Montague Eslinger wrote of its indigenous history: McDonald Farm was once a Cherokee village. And before that?

A lab analysis "places the prehistoric settlement of McDonald Farm back 2,000 years or so," Eslinger wrote in Chattanoogan.com.

In 2021, the family sold the Farm to Hamilton County for $16 million. Since then, the county has operated it as a park, but, also began exploring other possible uses, like manufacturing.

Citizens in Sale Creek and beyond have fought back, loudly and consistently declaring their desire that McDonald Farm remain agricultural, natural and timeless.

Food as a Verb completely agrees.

Approximately 650 acres of the McDonald Farm property are designated as prime farmland soils by the USDA, according to The Land Trust for Tennessee.

And at least 560 acres are designated as "Tennessee's best agricultural land" by the American Farmland Trust's Productivity, Versatility, and Resiliency Analysis of the agricultural land of the U.S.

Agriculturally, McDonald Farm is like a national park. Can you imagine opening up the Smoky Mountains to manufacturers?

It is high time we see "prime farmland soils" with as much respect for its agricultural value as its potential for outside manufacturers.

The unemployment rate in Hamilton County is 3.4%, lower than average.

Yet, the rate of which farmland, cropland and pastureland are being destroyed in Hamilton County is five-alarm-fire high.

As we reported recently, fewer than 1,300 acres of Hamilton County cropland remained in 2022.

Here's a map - produced by The Land Trust for Tennessee - of county cropland and pastureland in 2001.

Here's a map of 2022.

That makes McDonald Farm and its prime farmland soil an endangered species.

Food as a Verb believes the best-use of McDonald Farm is agricultural and agri-tourism.

Hamilton County is paving over and developing - what a poor, misguided term - its cropland. Fewer than 1,300 acres remain.

The total acreage for Hamilton County is approximately 368,500 acres.

Can you imagine the karmic effect of bulldozing through land that has sustained and nourished countless humans and animals for thousands of years?

McDonald Farm could become a treasure, among the most precious places in the county.

• Imagine an agricultural training center for 21st century farming.

McDonald Farm could become a leader among Southern states for pioneering, cultivating and improving agricultural practices at a time when we need innovation the most.

• Imagine McDonald Farm could become a national leader in educating students on 21st century practices that will be in high demand in the coming years.

Look at Boyd Buchanan and its Future Farmers of America chapter and agriculture classes. And Hixson High. And Baylor School's garden club. There's a quiet, yet steady, underground movement building among this young Americans, who continue to realize, as the temperatures increase and storms grow stronger: we need the skills required as agriculturalists in an increasingly difficult world.

Let Hamilton County become the leader.

• Imagine McDonald Farm as an ag-tech labratory, the ag-equivalent of downtown Chattanooga's Innovation District.

Why do we so often get starry-eyed over tech and innovation, but not agricultural and farming?

"Renegerative agriculture is about nourishing," Aubrey Painter writes in The Stockman Grassfarmer. "It is about nourishing our land, our relationships, our families, as well as ourselves."

This is Hamilton County's Aquarium moment. Consider all those who said the Tennessee Aquarium was a fool's errand. (Many did.) But a vision of a nourishing space - for families, the land and waters, our own city's heart - trumped other, less visionary considerations.

We are so hungry for nourishing things. Protect the land. The economy will follow.

As McDonald Farm goes, so goes Hamilton County.

• Thanks to Jon, a reader and hobby farmer in Decatur, who sent in some beautiful photos of a local meal, part foraged, part grown on his own land. This is a blend of our Local Food Challenge and Food in our Phone series.

"Last weeks rains produced a lot of mushrooms," he said.

Some puffball mushrooms were harvested for dinner.

"I sauteed them in olive oil, garlic, and sesame seeds. When browned I added greens from our garden (amaranth) and and finished with balsamic vinegar," he said. "Our whole meal was not local but over half of it was. Sweet potatoes were also from our garden, but the rice and beans were well traveled."

• For you Main Street Farmers' Market folks, we're entering that good, transition time of year with one foot in warm weather produce and the other in the coming cool weather vegetables.

Today, you can buy everything from lion's mane mushrooms to nut butters, ground chicken to pumpkins.

Letty Smith of Circle S Farm generously shared her Good Grazing cookbook. Aren't these squash drawings from Tosh Hopkins gorgeous?

This afternoon, Wheeler's Orchard is selling apples. That pairs nicely with Letty's recipe for apple pie.

• Finally, we're working on a sweet profile of one well-known local business owner. Who? Take a guess. Who wakes up with this to-do list each day?

Hope everyone has a wonderful week.

See you Sunday.

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This story is 100% human generated; no AI chatbot was used in the creation of this content.