Before the invention of refrigerated shipping, people living across the High Plains had to grow their own food. As Europeans migrated into the region, many found it difficult to grow their traditional fruits and vegetables.

The Alliance for Historic Wyoming and Cheyenne Botanic Gardens are conducting a tour of High Plains Arboretum this Saturday.

Jessica Friis, horticulturist with the Botanic Gardens, said the site originally was a research hub hoping to unlock the secrets of growing food in Wyoming's harsh climate.

"A lot of people were just giving up and leaving if they couldn't grow enough to sustain their families," said Friis. "So these stations started popping up all over the high plains, to try to find varieties of fruits and vegetables that would do well in this climate."

Covering more than 2,100 acres of trees and shrubs, the site was founded in 1928 as the Central Great Plains Field Station by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Visitors will be able to see historic buildings, including the head house, greenhouse and lath house, which was constructed as part of federal Depression-era infrastructure investments.

More information about the tour is available at the Botanic Gardens' web site: Botanic.org.

The Field Station collected native plants from across the region, and tested crops from across the globe.

Friis explained in the late 1800s, the USDA began sending "plant explorers" to find and bring back seeds and cuttings from species that could be valuable for the nation's agricultural industry.

"The station here tested a lot of plant material that was brought back from places like Russia and Siberia and northern China," said Friis, "that also had similarly harsh winters and dry growing conditions."

Friis noted that visitors to the site will see trees and shrubs planted in the 1930s - which have received very little irrigation and care since 1974, when the USDA switched the site's focus to grasslands - that are still growing and surviving.

"Some of them came from other parts of the world, and some of them had ties to political upheaval - in China, as well as the Russian Revolution - at the time they were collected," said Friis. "So if you're into history at all, it's really a fascinating place."

Next week, Ohio farmers and their advocates head to Washington, D.C., to push for shifting federal programs toward growing nutritious food, as lawmakers gear up to reauthorize the Farm Bill.

The cost of groceries has increased by 13% over the past year, driven largely by global supply-chain issues and the war in Ukraine.

Angela Huffman, co-founder and vice president of Farm Action, said she believes a strong system of local food suppliers would stabilize Ohio's food economy, and help ensure more families have access to fruits, vegetables, and sustainably raised meat.

"The Farm Bill matters to everybody, because everybody eats," Huffman asserted. "A large part of the reason that we're seeing this skyrocketing inflation -- and frankly, price gouging -- is because a small number of really large corporations are controlling our food system and our government policies."

According to an Urban Institute report, around one in five adults nationwide reported food insecurity in their households in 2020 and again last summer, when historic inflation levels sent food prices soaring.

Huffman added the federal government currently purchases food from major industrial producers. She is hoping the new Farm Bill shifts some buying power to local farmers for schools, hospitals and other community institutions.

"We want to be focused on empowering farmers to do what they do and feed their neighbors, and not just feeding corporate-controlled livestock around the world," Huffman emphasized.

Huffman added farmers are struggling to stay afloat in an era of falling commodity prices and the globalization of agriculture.

"The bulk of the money is going towards feed grains for livestock, which is corn, soybeans, other grains," Huffman outlined. "Farmers are really locked in this system, because that's where the lifeline subsidies are directed towards, and their margins are so slim."

Federal data show in 2019, the nation's small family farm operations held an average of $90,000 in debt.

Maine's small farmers are encouraged to complete the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture census to ensure they have a voice in federal decisions that will shape the future of agriculture.

The census takes place every five years, collecting data that determines farm programs and services, disaster assistance, research, technology development, and more.

Rhiannon Hampson, USDA state director and Knox County dairy farmer, said the best way small farmers can represent themselves is to let the USDA know they exist.

"You know, as small farms we don't have paid representatives for us to federal agencies," said Hampson. "We are our own advocates and this is one of the tools that we can best use to advocate for ourselves."

Hampson said data gathered in the last census helped USDA better support farmers during the COVID-19 pandemic, when wholesale markets were drying up, and farms were losing profits.

The early deadline to complete the census is February 6 and it can be completed through the USDA's ag counts website.

Since 1840, the agriculture census has gathered useful data on Maine's wild blueberry, maple syrup and potato farms as well as their decline.

The last census revealed Maine lost more than 570 farms between 2012 and 2017.

Angie Considine, a New England state statistician with USDA, said the data collected is confidential and that any operation with roughly $1,000 in annual sales should participate.

"It doesn't take that long to fill it out if you are a small farm," said Considine, "because you know you can skip a lot of sections and just fill out the parts that apply to you if you are a small farm."

Considine said without proper data from small farmers, even those that just sell their products at farmers' markets, farm policies could be centered around larger agribusiness operations.

The proposed merger between the Idaho-based grocery chain Albertsons and Kroger has antitrust laws in the spotlight, as the supermarket companies are already the two largest in the country.

Idaho has the third most Albertsons stores in the country, with 39 across the state. Announced in October, the merger has been under intense scrutiny.

Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said the grocery industry is already consolidated, which hurts workers, small businesses and consumers.

"We've seen food production workers and farmers getting paid less for food, and we've seen consumers paying more for groceries," Mitchell observed. "What's happening is that you've got a small number of companies in the middle -- the middlemen, including the supermarket chains -- who are absorbing more and more of that spending for themselves."

Mitchell noted since the announcement of the merger, Congress has enacted what she calls the most significant antitrust legislation in 50 years. The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act was passed in the government spending package in December. It lowers fees on smaller acquisitions and increases them for the largest mergers, raising more money for Congress to use to fund antitrust enforcement.

Mitchell pointed out consolidation especially is harmful for rural areas, which depend more on small and mid-sized businesses for their economy. She noted the country has seen a sharp decline in businesses of this type.

"Rural areas have been particularly hard hit by that because, if you're a small town, you don't have a corporate headquarters of a giant company, right?" Mitchell explained. "You rely naturally on smaller businesses and those businesses have really been hurt and squeezed by the monopoly problem that we're seeing."

The spending package also included the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act, which makes it easier for state attorneys general litigating antitrust cases to remain in their selected courts.

Mitchell added the changes have support from lawmakers in both parties.

"We've seen this growing momentum in Congress to address antitrust, and it's bipartisan," Mitchell stressed. "That's one of the things that I think is striking in this moment, given the partisan divisions on just about any other issue you can think of."