On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a final Origin of Livestock Rule for organic farmers. USDA’s publishing of this rule signals a long-awaited win for organic farms in Maine and is something that a coalition of advocacy groups and farmers has been recommending for several years. “This will
Each year, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) awards three scholarships in the amount of $1,500, one in each of the following categories: MOFGA Journeyperson program participant (past or present). Maine high school senior planning to study sustainable or organic farming (with a preference for colleges in Maine). Kennebec Valley Community College student
On Monday March 7, representatives from organic dairy farms, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) and Organic Valley Cooperative met, and 11 farms were offered letters of intent from Organic Valley to supply the cooperative with organic milk. This is an encouraging step in the journey of these farms, and 69 others throughout
To learn more about PFAS contamination in Maine, check out our resources page. We continue to update it with information for farmers and gardeners, and the general public. To support farmers dealing with potential PFAS contamination, MOFGA is working with Maine Farmland Trust to administer a PFAS emergency fund. It is meant to serve as a
by Heather Spalding, MOFGA Deputy Director The past legislative session in Augusta generated some important victories in Maine’s pesticide regulation arena. We banned chlorpyrifos, restricted landscape use of neonicotinoids (neonics), prohibited the use of glyphosate and dicamba on school grounds, and reformed the composition of the Board of Pesticides Control (BPC), establishing that there will
The 2022 spring issue of The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, MOFGA’s quarterly newspaper, is now available. In it, Roberta Bailey shares wild spring recipes in her Harvest Kitchen column, and Will Bonsall talks tomatoes. Other tips for the farm and homestead include how to identify flower flies — and why you’ll want to encourage
Maine – Maine Farmland Trust and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) are launching a new PFAS Emergency Relief Fund to support farmers impacted by potential PFAS contamination. “This fund will help make sure that farmers that are facing extreme uncertainty about their futures get interim relief until they get the support they
The chemicals known as per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) continue to come to light as contaminants in agriculture. Maine farms, conventional and organic, are increasingly testing water, soil and crops to determine if PFAS contamination exists. As we wrote in a previous blog post, these forever chemicals persist in the environment decades after they were
The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) recently unveiled the 2022 Common Ground Country Fair poster at its annual membership meeting. The artwork for the fair’s promotional materials is selected from contest submissions each year and the winning design is highly anticipated. This year’s artwork by Morgan Cameron is titled “Raven with Blackberries.” A
The chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been widely used since the 1950s in products ranging from food packaging to fire fighting foam. PFAS have recently been recognized as contaminants in agriculture and are believed to largely be entering soil through the application of biosolids, industrial sludges and ashes, which may contain
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