Maine agriculture

The recent gusher of jobs in northern Maine has been welcome news after so many years of dry employment wells. Two telemarketing companies promise enough jobs to drop the unemployment rate from 7 percent to 5 percent. These firms seem well worth the high praise they are receiving, but equally important are some recent smaller successes closer to the heart of the state’s traditional businesses.

SITEL Corp of Omaha, Neb., an insurance seller, and MBNA, the credit-card company, separately announced in recent weeks the creation of a total of 650 jobs, with more work to come. Their announcements are the culmination of months of work by state officials and, specifically, the Loring Development Authority, which has had success in attracting a wide range of businesses to the former air base. The County, just starting recapture the number of jobs left when the base closed, certainly can make good use of these employment opportunities.

But just as trucks loaded with telephones begin heading for the County, an another announcment may mean that an equally valuable — though less high-tech — crop will be heading out. Naturally Potatoes of Mars Hill is promising to process 10,000 acres worth of Aroostook potatoes for a value-added fresh market that addresses the changing dietary habits of Americans. The company plans to sell its products using overnight delivery to the northeastern United States and eastern Canadian markets.

After years of losing potato acreage and, by some estimates, of being up against the bare minimum acres planted to maintain the industry’s infrastructure, Naturally Potatoes could help far more farmers than just those it deals with directly. The company presents a chance for more Maine potato farmers to start growing again.

The same is true with another agricultural niche recently recognized, organic milk. Rep. John Baldacci, who sits on the House Agriculture Committee, calls the growth in this business the only bright spot in the dairy industry, and it is a growing business in Maine. To be labled organic, milk must come from cows that are fed only organically grown grain and are not injected with recombinant bovine growth hormone, which artificially stimulates milk production.

The cost of grain always has been a large burden on Maine dairy farmers; the need for organically grown grain could make this an even larger problem. But it is also a larger opportunity for Mainers looking for an crop in demand that could fetch a fair price.

Agriculture in Maine employs 12,000 people and is worth $1 billion to the state annually. If it were a fenced-in military site, Rep. Baldacci notes, the state would be falling all over itself to save it. The state has worked hard, if quietly, to help many farmers. More importantly, farmers are helping themselves to revive this vital part of Maine.