Claudia Rosie, who works for Farm Fresh Rhode Island, another group that supports local agriculture, sets out cabbage for sale last February .

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

The Blackbird Farm in Smithfield sells fresh, all-natural Angus beef to individuals and high-end restaurants in Providence, and business keeps getting better and better.

“There is a different taste to the beef,” says Ann Marie Bouthillette, who runs the 50-acre farm with her family. “The chefs create the meals and we have to create the beef.”

The Confreda Greenhouses & Farms in Hope, long known for growing 400 acres of flowers and vegetables and for markets throughout southern New England, hasn’t simply relied on its core crops of corn, tomatoes, peppers and squash. It has gone into “agri-tainment,” says employee Lana Vieira. It grows a special cornfield for a haunted attraction in the fall. It welcomes schoolchildren. And it’s now preparing a fifth generation of the family that picks vegetables in the solitude of 2 a.m. and ships them before dawn.

A handsomely colored quarterly magazine called edibleRHODY is completing its second year by focusing stories and advertising on Rhode Island restaurants and their use of locally grown foods. Editor Genie McPherson Trevor says local farmers and chefs “are passionate about what they do and we like to tell their tales.”

The three organizations were among 40 farms and farm-related businesses celebrating the annual Agriculture Day at the State House Tuesday and if there was a special buzz, it was because all agreed they are part of one of the few sectors of the Rhode Island economy that is actually thriving.

After a century of constant and dramatic decline, the number of farms in Rhode Island has grown in the last several years with nearly 300 new, small farms. (National trends are up to, but only by 4 percent; Rhode Island is up 42 percent.)

During the same period, the land being farmed has grown by more than 6,000 acres and the value of livestock and crops produced increased more than $10 million, to a total of $65.9 million.

“A lot of good things are happening,” says Kenneth Ayars, chief of the state Department of Environmental Management’s Agriculture Department. “It’s definitely bucking many of the trends of economic growth.”

Ayars said the public has been chastened by health scares over imported foods. There is a growing interest in locally grown and organic foods. And the state has been working hard to increase use of local foods in local school districts and to expand farmers’ markets — they are up from a handful a generation ago to 40 this year.

A good example is the Simmons Farm in Middletown. It’s been in business for more than 300 years, and Carla and Brian Simmons say they thrive today by giving customers what they want — organic vegetables, chickens, pork and beef, and community assisted agriculture, the growing movement in which farmers sell shares in their crops. Last year, the Simmons supplied 240 families.

“There’s definitely a call for more local food in general, but in our case we stepped it up and went the organic route,” says Carla Simmons. “We also work to be diversified. And we believe individuals can make a difference, that every little bit we do helps the environment.”

To help improve on a good thing, the state used an $80,000 federal grant to launch a new promotional campaign Tuesday with slogans such as “Get Fresh, Buy Local,” and “I Got Fresh in RI.”

The campaign features a Web site, www.getfreshbuylocal.org, which includes names and addresses of Rhode Island farmers, details on the farmers’ markets and a harvest calendar to help keep track of when products are in season.

Governor Carcieri announced the new marketing campaign and said he agreed with state Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski, a South County farmer, that agriculture is one of the few bright spots in the state’s economy.

“The farm community is part of the soul of our state,” Carcieri said. “And I think you clearly sense a shift of people getting back to where they want to buy food locally.”

Sosnowski said it was a “dream come true” for her to see all the progress agriculture has made in Rhode Island.

“I wish you all luck, and a good growing season,” she said to a room packed with farmers. “Thank you for keeping Rhode Island growing.”

Noah Fulmer, executive director of Farm Fresh Rhode Island, another group supporting local agriculture, said just five years ago a new market in Rhode Island was selling Idaho potatoes at the same time Rhode Island farmers were having trouble finding anyone to buy their potatoes.

Farmland was disappearing. Childhood obesity and diabetes rates were increasing and people didn’t seem to know where their food was coming from, he said. So his group started promoting more farmers’ markets and set up its own Web site, www.farmfresh.org.

Phoukham Vongkhamdy, the state conservationist who supervises all federal Department of Agriculture work in Rhode Island, said he grew up on a small farm in Laos, so it made him feel like it was his destiny to observe the exuberance of the many small farmers at the State House.

“You can taste the difference in the foods these people produce. They are local. It’s awesome,” said Vongkhamdy. “I just had some apple cider — it’s the best I ever had!”

Ray Aubin, general manager for the Confreda Farms, said he has lived through four recessions, so it is no surprise to him that people will spend their extra money on homes and gardens rather than movies and travel.

“The key to this movement is there is a genuine interest by consumers in buying local products,” Aubin said. “So much of marketing is finding out where demand is, and then providing for it. That’s what we do.”

Source: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture 2007 census

plord@projo.com