Organic and Sustainable Agriculture News

Crops in crisis Bangor Daily News - 7/2/2009. By Sharon Kiley Mack – LINCOLN — Earl Ireland has been farming vegetables for 50 years and said Wednesday that he had never seen weather such as Maine is experiencing now. “Another 10 days of rain and we’ll be out of business,” he said. Ireland raises vegetables and berries on his Lincoln farm, and in a normal year, would have planted 70 acres this spring. “We got in 35. We couldn’t get on the rest of the fields,” he said. The lack of sun and continued rain are causing crops to rot in the fields. Blight fear trumps spray rule Kennebec Journal - 7/2/2009. By Meg Haskell, Bangor Daily News – Rainy weather has left Maine's 55,000 acres of potato fields sodden, creating a perfect environment for a virulent fungal disease known as potato late blight. At an emergency meeting Wednesday in Orono, members of the state's Board of Pesticides Control voted to temporarily override existing regulations and issue licenses quickly to out-of-state aerial pesticide applicators. ... Russell Libby, of Mount Vernon, director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, raised concerns about the proposal. Here’s a true fish story Portland Press Herald - 7/1/2009. By Meredith Goad – For most people, a brilliant fireworks display is the must-have accompaniment to the Fourth of July. For Brenda and Tanya Athanus, it's a family dinner of salmon and peas. ... Salmon and peas on Independence Day is an old Maine tradition that hearkens back to the days when wild salmon were plentiful in the state's rivers, and peas were a tasty summer holdover of the traditional English diet. Old-time Mainers didn't plan to celebrate the Fourth this way; wild-caught salmon and home-grown peas were simply the foods that were available at this time of year after a long, hard winter and cool spring. Maine residents urged to stay vigilant for insect threats Bangor Daily News - 7/1/2009. AUGUSTA, Maine – A Wilton woman had a nasty experience in her yard earlier this month when she opened a bag of manure compost just purchased from a big-box store. An ugly, black longhorned beetle flew out of the bag and she promptly killed the insect. Later hearing the warning from the Maine Forest Service about the dangers of the Asian longhorned beetle in firewood, the woman called the agency and reported the unusual incident, according to a press release from the Maine Department of Conservation. The compost, which contained wood product, had an Alabama address on the bag, she reported. [Photo: Emerald ash borer] Smooth sailing for ‘oil-free’ food Common Dreams - 7/1/2009. By Diane Urbani de la Paz – SEQUIM, Wash. – Let us follow a strawberry, flush from the field as it travels on wind and water – but without petroleum – from Sequim to the big, hungry city. People in Seattle want these oil-free Sequim berries with the Nash's Organic name on them, according to David Reid, owner and operator of Seattle's Sail Transport Co. He's the bringer of our berry – plus hundreds of pounds of other produce – across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, into Puget Sound and to the city dock in Seattle, all without a motor. No healthcare reform without food-system reform Grist - 7/1/2009. By Tom Laskawy – The AP reports on a new state-level study of obesity rates. And the news is, well, terrifying: Obesity rates among adults rose in 23 states over the past year and didn’t decline anywhere, says a new report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. ... [W]hile the nation has long been bracing for a surge in Medicare as the boomers start turning 65, the new report makes clear that fat, not just age, will fuel much of those bills. On scapes and goats Bangor Daily News - 7/1/2009. By Emily Burnham – A trip to the farmers market in Orono last weekend netted us broccoli, lettuce, mint, goat cheese from Olde Oak Farm in Orono (made by a friendly goat named Sensational), a wonderful three-seed bread from Bread Box Bakery in East Orland, and garlic scapes from Double Bit Farm in Unity. Current  Archive     Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9