The new year brings an opportunity for reflection on happenings and accomplishments, and anticipation of what’s to come. The first Harvest of 2021 reminds us that even in a year as full of challenges as 2020, there’s good work happening to create promising food system solutions, and there’s a lot of work yet to do, too.
The National Young Farmers Coalition recently released a new report on land policy. “As millions of acres of U.S. farmland are changing hands, public policy holds the responsibility and the promise to facilitate land justice for the next generation of farmers.”
New Roots Cooperative Farm in Lewiston is closing in on their goal to purchase the farmland they’ve leased from MFT since 2016. You can help make it happen by giving to their GoFundMe campaign.
Food and farm workers continue to be on the frontlines of the pandemic.
The events of 2020 brought racial and social justice into sharp focus across so many structures and systems, including our food and farm system. Civil Eats covered so many important stories that demonstrated how issues of justice and equity intersect with all facets of the food system.
David Scott will be the first Black chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, setting a course to prioritize racial justice, climate change, and food security.
Over the next several years solar development will be happening across the state, and where and how that solar development happens will have a big impact on the future of Maine’s farmland and food security.
Just before the end of the year, MFT & MOFGA collaborated to award 38 additional Maine Farm Emergency Grants to farms impacted by COVID-19.
