Agriculture vs. “Commercial Agritourism”: A Battle No NH Farm Should Have to Fight

There’s an irony happening right here in our own small towns: boards and inspectors are calling family farms “commercial” simply for doing what farms have always done — grow food, welcome the public, and share the experience.

Last November (2024), our farm received a cease-and-desist letter from the Town of Barnstead signed by the Board of Selectmen — including one member who also operates a local farm and recently interviewed another New Hampshire farm to discuss agriculture and agritourism. The same letter used the phrase “commercial agritourism” — a term that does not exist anywhere in state law.

Under RSA 21:34-a, agritourism is agriculture. Period. It’s defined right alongside crops and livestock as part of the normal, lawful use of a farm. New Hampshire’s RSA 674:32-b was designed specifically to prevent towns from over-regulating farms by reclassifying them as “businesses.”

Yet here we were — a farm that sells its own products, hosts the occasional event, and opens its doors to the community — being told that our activities are “commercial” and therefore require site-plan review and restrictions that no other farm in town has ever been asked to complete.

We’ve already confirmed with our Planning Board that site-plan review isn’t required for our farm or farm activities. In fact, not a single farm in Barnstead that engages in pick-your-own, farm stands, or agritourism has ever been through site-plan review. All it would have taken was a simple comparison — a question, a quick look at town records, or even a basic inquiry into whether any other farm in Barnstead was held to these same standards. That didn’t happen. Which means what we’re dealing with is either selective enforcement by choice or pure oversight and ignorance — neither of which belongs in local government.

What’s really happening here is selective enforcement — disguised as “compliance.” It’s one thing to ensure safety and fairness. It’s another to move the goalposts for certain farms while others carry on under the same conditions, untouched.

And here’s where the contradiction becomes impossible to ignore: if our own Board of Selectmen is genuinely interested in interviewing and engaging in constructive dialogue with farms across New Hampshire, they might consider offering that same level of personal interaction, curiosity, and collaboration to the farmers in their own town. Instead of picking up the phone or visiting our property, we were met with a cease-and-desist letter — a document designed to halt our operations rather than foster understanding.

If local officials want to support agriculture and agritourism, they need to start by reading the very laws written to protect it — and stop inventing new ones that don’t exist.

And maybe, just maybe, start talking to their own farmers first.