Maine family farms are under attack by an array of challenges right now, and our “leaders” in Washington, D.C. seem largely unconcerned. Politically-focused, cynical calculations by America’s current party of power are only part of the problem, but misplaced priorities down there only make it harder for family farms here at home to survive – if not to grow and prosper as they should.
Agriculture lives or dies in rural America, which too many in our nation’s capital consider terra incognita. Don’t take my word for it: ask Maine State Senator Chloe Maxmin (D-Nobleboro) who represents my Lincoln County town in Augusta. Her book “Dirt Road Politics,” which urges the Democrat Party to pay more attention to the needs of rural Americans, has been sharply criticized by her own state party.
It is little wonder that the headline-grabbing question of PFAS contamination of soil is the direct result of a state program that, until recently, urged and encouraged Maine farmers to use what is now said to be contaminated sewage as fertilizer. Then in a stark reversal, and against the advice of the Maine Farm Bureau, the state acted to ban all biosolids, which have applications in farming as broad as regenerating soil and providing bedding for livestock.
Earlier this year, Maine’s legislature passed a bill that would have required small family farmers to add collective bargaining to the host of existential challenges they currently face. To her credit, Governor Janet Mills prevented this farm-killing measure from becoming law.
But that was only one dodged bullet. Unfortunately, the wrong-headed regulatory measures keep coming: both from Augusta, and Washington.
Maine’s First District Congresswoman Chellie Pingree took a trip to communist Cuba several years ago and, when she returned, announced triumphantly that the totalitarian state “has developed great organic farming practices that are well aligned with the kinds of small, diverse farms that have been so successful in Maine.”
Hmmm. Things on North Haven, where Pingree holds court and her billionaire ex-husband built the utopian Turner Farm on a bucolic spot overlooking the passing yachts, must be very different than in the rest of Maine.
Tax laws that make it difficult for families to pass on their land to future generations continue to destroy the continuity of ownership of farms across our state. The mandatory shut down of the hospitality industry from 2020-21 was devastating to farms and CSAs alike. And soaring fuel prices leave farmers wondering how they’ll be able to afford to run their tractors in the coming harvest season, get their produce to market, and buy fertilizer for next year.
While Pingree sits on two House committees relevant to farming, her various initiatives in the name of agriculture have more to do with the airy talk of climate change than throwing a lifeline to the small family farms throughout our district. According to a study by the University of Maine’s Cooperative Extension Network, the number of family farms in Maine fell by 400 between the agricultural censuses of 2012 and 2017 – a 7% decrease.
If the fear of being regulated out-of-existence were not so real, Maine voters would have had little reason to pass the “Right to Food” amendment to our state’s constitution last fall.
One Southern Maine man who was recently forced to shut down his family’s farm after running it for a quarter century told me his labor costs had risen over 100% over the past five years and he was unwilling to pass those onto customers who faced the same economic pressures his farm did. Stories like these cloud the honest ambitions of hard-working Mainers who now struggle to make a living working the earth.
Today, we need a total re-think of what is required for Maine farmers to survive, and thrive. The priority is not to put more acres into conservation easements but to put more food on the tables of Maine families. That means applying all our shoulders to the task of getting Maine’s and America’s economy growing again. Getting there also requires sending some fresh faces to Washington ready to fight for all of Maine’s farming families.
