Frosts made slim pickings of apple crop
Maine Sunday Telegram - 9/19/2010. By Lynne Tuohy – Concord, N.H.: The answering machine message at Spiller Farms in Wells, Maine, cuts to the chase: "May 11 froze our apple crop." While many apple growers across the nation are enjoying an earlier-than-usual harvest, many in New England and parts of the Upper Midwest are reeling from the effects of two hard frosts in May. |
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Maine gardener: Surplus good
Maine Sunday Telegram - 9/19/2010. By Tom Atwell – Maine's vegetable gardeners have been uncommonly generous this year. Donations to the Plant-a-Row for the Hungry program are up for sure in Cumberland and Oxford counties and probably around the state – people are too busy in the gardens to get exact statistics. |
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Iowa looks to Maine for egg farm rules
Kennebec Journal - 9/19/2010.Editorial – When a national egg recall involved farms far away in Iowa, we were not surprised to hear a familiar name. Jack Decoster, a Maine native and notorious owner of egg farms here, has a long record in this state of paying fines and settlements for worker health and safety violations, as well as animal cruelty. |
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It’s official: Jack DeCoster rules the U.S. Egg roost
Grist - 9/18/2010.By Tom Philpott – In a post earlier this week, I showed that a man with a 15-year history of labor, environmental, food-safety, and animal-welfare violations stands at the nexus of several tightly linked companies that, together, produce more eggs than any other U.S. firm. Now I can say it outright: Austin "Jack" DeCoster, who was once called by the state of Iowa a "habitual violator" for flouting its environmental codes, controls the largest U.S. egg conglomerate. |
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