Monday was a day on the farm for U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer.

He got to see pigs and cows and chickens. And he had the chance to hear first-hand the difficulties facing small farms.

“I’m here because I believe in sustainability,” said Kilmer, a 6th District Democrat and Bainbridge’s go-to-guy in Congress. “I have a 5- and a 9-year-old and, four or five years ago we planted what we call our ‘Victory Garden.’ I love that my kids are learning to take care of stuff.”

Kilmer toured the Suyematsu and Bentryn Family Farms on Day Road and two farms on the south part of the island operated by HeyDay Farm. The visit was arranged by Friends of the Farms, a Bainbridge Island nonprofit that supports small farming and sustainability.

At the first stop, local farmer Betsy Wittick spoke about this year’s lack of rain and how it had hurt her crops.

“Most years, we don’t start watering until June or July,” she said. “This year we had to start in April. We had a dry winter and now we’ve had no rain for so long, only enough to settle the dust.”

That means constant monitoring of plants and looking for stress due to lack of moisture.

And, she said, if it continues to be dry, it may affect what she plants in the future.

“Farmers are resilient,” she said. “We adjust to just about anything.”

In practical terms, she could add small-scale ponds, but that would require approval from the Army Corps of Engineers, she said, and looking at salmon-bearing creeks in the area and possible ecological impacts.

Wittick also spoke about other federal regulations that make life hard on farmers, especially small farm operations.

“There are USDA loans out there for small farmers,” she said. “And I’ve applied for one. It’s not applying that’s hard, but it’s the constant monitoring that makes it impossible. The paperwork is overwhelming.”

Farming is a 24/7 job, said Wendy Tyner, executive director of Friends of the Farms.

“Small farmers don’t have the time for all that paperwork, just as they don’t have time for lobbying Congress. That’s why advocacy groups like ours are out there to represent them.”

Kilmer noted that Congress is looking at a bill that would set up a national standard for labeling GMO (genetically modified organism) and non-GMO products.

“It wouldn’t be mandatory, but it would prohibit states from creating their own labeling standards,” he said.

Wittick said she thinks states should have the right to create their own standards.

“A standard definition is fine,” she said. “We should have labeling because we have the right to know what’s in our food. But the big corporations will influence anything done at the federal level to the point that their needs will trump our rights. This should be handled at the state level.”

Kilmer came looking for solutions. He mentioned that small farmers are joining with schools in Farm to Kids, a state program, that allows fresh produce to be served at local schools. He asked whether something along those lines might be possible in Kitsap County where local farmers would work with the military to get their produce in commissaries.

Farmers said it would be a challenge unless the military was able to adopt a values statement declaring that better health was more important than cost.

“It’s all about economies of scale,” Wittick said. “If we knew we had a market, we could plant more and there would be the possibility of larger farms. But we have to look at keeping it all within the price point.”

HeyDay Farms on the south end of Bainbridge Island was Kilmer’s next stop. Owner Steve Romein has two separate farms which he started working about four years ago.

Romein grows produce, but he also has pigs, turkeys, chickens and laying hens. He has eight cows and in total he has more than 30 acres.

He told Kilmer that getting through the bureaucracy to get his farm up and running was tough.

“There are conflicting regulations for the big farms and the little farms,” he said. “I had to have 28 different inspections to get my permits to do this farm. The government needs to make the process simpler.”

As an example, Romein said, when he wanted to build a roof over his compost bins, he had to get a permit, because it was larger than the minimum size that required permitting with the city.

Although farming was allowed by the zoning, he added, neighbors looked at the land as mainly a residential area.

“Those are the kinds of battles small farmers face,” Romein said.

Another thing that’s keeping more people from going into small farming is the cost of education.

“Most of the people I know who are farming now have college degrees,” he said. “They never expect to get rich farming, but just the costs of their student loans keep them from being able to really do what they want to. They can’t go out and buy any land to farm with that kind of debt hanging over them.”

Farming on public land, something that Friends of the Farms helps to make happen, is one option.

Simply getting government to support keeping land for farming and not developing it is important, Tyner said.

“That’s why we’re here, to see that the land is protected and used for farming,” she said.

Kilmer said he sees farming as an essential element of economic development.

“Looking at how we can support that is important to me,” he said, and added to the farmers at hand: “Keep me on your speed dial because I want to know how I can help.”