SEPTEMBER HARVEST: Farm and Food News From Maine and Beyond
Check back each month for a selection of articles, stories, and trends you might have missed.
Fall means apple season! And we can expect a good one this year, and even keep apples through the spring. Plus, more orchards are growing interesting heritage varieties.
Maine’s growth in farms, especially small organic farms, is a bright spot in the state’s economy.
A new cooperative (of both farm and sea) could expand the market reach of Maine’s food producers.
Veterans are finding a future in farming, especially in Maine. More and more women are getting into farming and owning their operations, too.
Beginning farmers across the nation face challenges, although there is increasing pressure to address those concerns. Even across the world, there is more and more focus on young farmers progressing in the field.
Maine has quite a few farm incubator areas, with good soil, community, and a couple strong farms.
More research in Maine’s grain production could spell good news for the future of local bread.
You could buy everything you eat for the week at one farm through a full diet CSA. Not too many in Maine yet, but we’re seeing more popping up regionally.
Disappearing Maine dairy: without enough dairies in an area, the milk hauler won’t make the trip, and the other operations are at risk of petering out.
Land for Maine’s Future gets waylaid by Governor LePage, again.
Maine’s blueberry farms often have migrant workers, and that connects the state to larger issues, like machines replacing workers, or the effect of immigration reform.
The world’s seed selection is kept in a Doomsday vault in Norway, and had to be opened for the first time this month because of destruction from the Syrian war.
And just for fun: water on Mars means… how soon until we start growing crops on the Red Planet?
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