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TOP STORY — Sept. 7, 2010
Fisherman’s Inn train: ‘No Farms, No Food’
By BRUCE HOTCHKISS
Senior Edtior
GRASONVILLE, Md. — It started with a slogan: “No Farms, No Food.”
It was, in effect, an advisory, a warning to America. The message was, if you continue to foster and/or ignore the disappearance of the nation’s farmland, you will, someday, go hungry.
The memorable four-word phrase was created by the American Farmland Trust on behalf of the nationwide effort to preserve farmland from being gobbled up by residential, commercial or industrial development and in the face of an ever-increasing population.
AFT put the slogan under copyright protection and then offered it to America, asking everyone who believes in protecting not only the nation’s farmland base but the nation’s food supply, to “spread the word.”
In a unique partnership linking the Maryland Soybean Board, the American Farmland Trust and a venerable and famed restaurant on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the word is, indeed, being spread.
With the blessing of Tracy Schulz —who manages The Fisherman’s Inn at Kent Narrows which his family established 80 years ago — a model train boxcar directly behind an S Gauge LGB engine, endlessly circles the restaurant on a track suspended from the ceiling above the diners.
The sides of the boxcar contain 15-inch “billboards” proclaiming “No Farms, No Food.”
The boxcar and the signs were provided by the Maryland Soybean Board after Jim Baird, executive director of the AFT Mid-Atlantic regional office in the nation’s capital, eagerly gave the project AFT blessing and the approval to use the copyrighted slogan.
On Aug. 17, as the directors took a break from a two-day meeting with dinner at the Fisherman’s Inn, Baird stopped by to thank Schulz for his gracious acceptance of the project.
Schulz, who worked on farms as a young man, said “I have always had a love for farming and if it were not for farmers, and watermen of course, we would not have a restaurant.”
Baird called the model train project “very exciting.”
“AFT is proud to work with the Soybean Board and Fisherman’s Inn to get our message out in such a unique way.’
“The inn is an icon on the Shore — a living tribute to the connections between farms, food and the Bay,” he continued.
“The Delmarva Peninsula’s commitment to protect farms and steward the land is proof that we can have viable farms and clean water. We must continue to protect farms and promote policies that empower farmers to implement environmentally friendly and economically viable practices,” he said.
The idea of providing a train for the entertainment and enjoyment of the diners was hatched about a decade ago by Tracy’s father, Sonny.
Tracy Schulz said the “No Farms No Food” car would be on view until the holiday season when the “Santa Claus train” runs the rails.
(Photo courtesy Jim Baird)
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