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Dan Hunsicker, who lives on 100 acres and farms about 1,000 acres in Lower Macungie, said lifelong farmers like him are in survival mode.He rents multiple properties in three counties and has dozens of landlords. He said it's getting more difficult to hold on to those properties, and traffic caused by development is making it more difficult to get to and from them. As the bulldozers come, they keep chasing you away, said Hunsicker, 62.A case in point was a property he farmed at Cedar Crest Boulevard and Lower Macungie Road. He stopped using the land when a developer inked an agreement of sale to turn it into 55-and-over housing.He added that the big thing in the industry now is organic farming, work that requires a good back, strong knees and a hefty payroll. At minimum, Hunsicker said, he would have to pay $15 per hour and provide benefits to workers if he shifted to more labor-intensive organic farming that doesn't use pesticides and herbicides. If I'm going to sell you a tomato for 50 cents, how am I going to make a living? he said. People like me are on the way out in this area, he said. How are you going to put together a large farm if there's no farmland? The future past me is getting pretty dim. Seeds of growthIn a lengthy report on the Lehigh Valley food economy released in 2013 by Greater Lehigh Valley Buy <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Tory-Burch-Boot-Sale>Tory Burch Boot Sale</a> Fresh Buy Local, Prior spells out the wide-ranging benefits of retaining farmland and putting it to good use.The report says the local food economy generates about $17 million in economic activity for the region. But the Lehigh Valley only has enough farmland to produce food for 24 percent of its population. Could we feed all of the people in the Lehigh Valley on all of the agricultural land we have? The answer is no, said Becky Bradley, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. We're going to be an importer of food. That's certainly an issue we need to address. Prior said a number of groups, collectively calling themselves the Sustainable Communities Consortium, are working to improve the food economy. Her organization, which promotes local produce through newsletters, a website, social media and programs that bring the farm to school, is trying to set up delivery networks for wholesale buyers. A number of organizations are banding together to create a food policy <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Tory-Burch-Winnie-Rain-Boots>Tory Burch Winnie Rain Boots</a> council to advance sustainable agriculture.More also is being done to encourage farming as a viable profession, even for people who didn't grow up on a farm. Lehigh County's seed farm, a nine-month farmer training program in Upper Milford and Lower Milford townships, has graduated 13 farmers in the past five years. Nine of those now farm in the region.In July, Rodale Institute, which has taken the lead in bringing locally grown food to the Lehigh Valley's cities, announced it was teaming with St. Luke's University Health Network to create an organic farm on the network's Anderson Campus in Bethlehem Township. It is expected to produce more than 44,000 pounds of produce in its first year to feed patients, staff and visitors at St. Luke's hospitals.Rodale also is helping train new farmers and transition farms from conventional to organic production.On the state level, FarmLink, a Pennsylvania nonprofit that connects farm owners with farmers looking for land, says it was contacted by 288 farmers in 2013 and created 60 potential matches.Zehr and others say local consumers with the mind-set that they can rely on other parts of the country for their food are misguided. A perfect example is what's happening in California, where a lot of our produce is coming from, he said. There's a severe drought going on there. They are so dependent on irrigation, and some of that water is disappearing. I just think it's short-sighted to squander what we have here. Some of the land in Lower Macungie and Upper Macungie has some of the best soil. Many say farming's future here lies in its ability to meet the needs of city and suburban dwellers. Lehigh Valley consumers have joined the rest of the country in seeking locally grown food and have shown a willingness to pay more for fresh products.Throughout the area, farmers markets are growing in popularity. Although a few have folded in recent years, Prior said, there are still eight farm markets that are going strong. Bieber and others believe the future of farming in the Lehigh Valley will be in smaller, high-value crops that feed people.Jeff Moyer, Rodale's <a href=http://www.alportico.net/page.php?sale=Gucci-Bags-Discount>Gucci Bags Discount</a> farm director, agreed, saying there is an interest in seeing farmland transition from corn and soybeans to consumable crops. The first thing you have to do is make farms profitable, he said. Nobody wants to enter into a career choice where you have to spend a lot of capital <to>get started]. We have to make farming as competitive as any other use for that land. Lichtenwalner, whose grandfather and father farmed his land before him, said he would discourage his daughters from taking over for him. He's managed to squeak out a living but isn't sure how long he can hold out. I can't keep going at this level I'm going, he said. There are some times that I have thought, why am I doing this? he said. I tell everybody that when I quit farming, that's when I'll make money. Twitter @plester6