Agricultural task force aims to balance need of small, large farms

AUGUSTA – Maine’s Agriculture Commissioner Robert W. Spear said Monday that the challenge for a new Task Force on Local Agriculture Development would be to balance the needs of the small, local farmer with those larger farms that concentrate on exporting their goods.

The first step will be coming up with an accurate definition of local agriculture.

“Are we talking about a farmer who grows a few vegetables for a roadside stand?” he asked. “Or are we talking about a dairy farmer who ships his milk to Oakhurst? If you ask ten different people for their definition of local agriculture, you’ll likely get ten different definitions.”

There will be no “one-size-fits-all” solution, the commissioner said.

Spear said there are great opportunities for local farmers that need to be explored without hurting the state’s exporting farmers. “We need to strike a balance,” Spear said. “We export blueberries, eggs, apples, milk and much, much more. Without our export market, Maine agriculture would be in bad shape.”

The new task force was developed after Gov. John E. Baldacci’s Blaine House Conference on Maine’s natural resource-based industries earlier this year.

The conference looked at forestry, fishing and tourism as well as agriculture. The conference shaped 75 proposals to strengthen these businesses and the governor’s steering committee will focus first on three initiatives – building capacity for tourism, a “Maine brand” marketing campaign and local agriculture. Individual state agencies are working to implement the remaining 75 proposals.

“My vision is for farming in Maine to remain a key component of our rural economies and communities,” Baldacci said in a prepared statement. “We have a special opportunity to grow a local agriculture where Maine farmers supply nutritious food to local consumers.”

The agriculture section of the report from the Blaine House Conference focused on four areas: water, land, production farming and local agriculture.

“We’re doing a pretty good job on the first three,” Spear said Monday. “For local agriculture, we have the ‘GetReal, GetMaine’ program and heavily promote farmers markets but there is more we can do.”

Spear said the task force consists of 13 people, most of them farmers and they will hold an organizational meeting in August. They will meet throughout the fall and deliver a report to the commissioner by mid-December.

“The main charge will be to develop recommendations for policies and programs needed to support, sustain and bolster local agriculture,” Spear said.

First lady Karen Baldacci will serve as the honorary chairwoman. The chairman will be Charles Spies, former head of the Finance Authority of Maine.

Other members are Joe Bouchard, a potato farmer from the St. John Valley; Dick Brzozowski, extension educator, Cumberland County; Dana Edwards, Graves Supermarkets; Clint Harris, diversified farmer in Dayton; Arnold Luce, Luce’s Meats in Anson; Wendy Pieh, Springtide Farms and former state representative; Ramona Snell, Snell Family Farm; Lisa Turner, Laughing Stock Farm, Freeport and president of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association; Adrian Wadsworth, dairy farmer from Turner and affiliated with Farm Fresh Connection; Peter Wallingford, apple grower from Androscoggin County; and John Weston, vegetable farmer from Fryeburg.

“This is all part of a bigger picture to promote and grow Maine’s diversified, superior agriculture community,” Spear said.