BANGOR – U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Thomas Dorr heard from Maine’s farmers Tuesday that this is a diversified state, one of family farms and innovative thinking, and that Maine should not get lost in the shuffle of large-commodity states when the 2007 Farm Bill is created.

“Maine and New England are not going to be a region of 200,000-acre farms, a possibility you’ve suggested elsewhere,” Russell Libby, executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, told Dorr. “That would leave Maine with one potato farm, one dairy farm and one blueberry farm. Instead, we maintain a family-scaled agriculture.”

Three dozen people gathered at Husson College to offer comments on the proposed farm bill, which will be used over the next two years to craft U.S. farm policy and funding.

Blueberry officials, dairy farmers and representatives of the state’s growing organic foods industry were on hand, and all testified about the benefits of USDA programs. What they also made clear was that the impacts of USDA programs go far beyond the farms’ fences.

Whether it is the food stamp program, low-income housing developments, loans to install new wastewater treatment plants or subsidies to help Maine’s dairy farmers stay afloat, Maine receives many millions of dollars through USDA programs.

The message most leaders of Maine’s rural development sector were sending to Dorr was equally clear: One shoe doesn’t fit all.

“Let individual states make their own decisions,” Maine’s Agriculture Commissioner Robert Spear told Dorr. “Our needs here are much different than New Mexico.”

Maine farmers often feel shortchanged by U.S. farm policy and funding, officials testified, because of USDA’s focus on Midwestern and Southern commodity farms and ranches. Programs such as conservation and sustainable agriculture often get squeezed out in favor of commodity programs.

“I want to make sure the family farm stays alive and well in Maine,” U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, told Dorr. Maine’s seasons, water issues, even terrain make it different from commodity states, he said, as he lobbied for more state and regional control. “We need flexibility in federal programs, and we don’t have all the answers in Washington. Ingenuity and problem solving come from the bottom up.”

State Rep. John Piotti, D-Unity, told Dorr not to overlook smaller-scale investments. “Agriculture in Maine is a growth industry, yet USDA does not recognize our type of state,” Piotti said. “Look at our successes, and invest in those areas. We have a lot going on in Maine agriculture, and much of it is different from the rest of the states.”

The ability to be flexible in crafting state programs that are federally funded would boost programs such as those Robert Tyler of the Passamaquoddy Nation outlined to Dorr.

Tyler said that 13 projects were under way at the Pleasant Point Reservation, all funded in part by USDA’s Rural Development Agency. Millions more dollars were leveraged with RDA funding, said Tyler, and used to construct a public safety building, assisted living facilities and an elder center. “This has allowed more tribal members to stay at home on the reservation,” Tyler said.

Steven Levy of Maine Rural Water pleaded for increases in grants for infrastructure improvements, saying the circle of grants to development results in a growing economy.

“Maine has lost wood, shoes and textiles,” Levy said. “Go to a town meeting. Everyone is 60 years old or older. Our youth has left the state.” USDA funding for infrastructure improvements can help shift this out-migration, Levy maintained.

Michael Sockalexis, the Penobscot Nation tribal representative to the Legislature, also asked Dorr to trust that local control works. Whether it is the Penobscots’ sale of a subdivision in Steuben to finance a mail-order pharmacy or the tribe’s cooperative planning with the town of Carrabassett Valley to construct a major wind farm in western Maine, USDA funding is key and local control is imperative, Sockalexis said.

“We use the money well in Maine,” he said.

Dorr agreed with Sockalexis. “The sorts of things you are talking about are working,” he said. Dorr said that in 1995, USDA Rural Development offered $5.8 million in loans. “In 2004, Rural Development had the capacity for $17 billion in loans.

“We are here to gather input,” Dorr said at the start of the session, “not just from farmers, but also from the 60 million-plus rural Americans.” He said it was a “bit of a luxury” to have two years to craft the 2007 Farm Bill.

“But it is difficult to get young people to come back from college to the rural areas if you don’t have opportunities,” he said. Dorr said that in the 1940s, when existing farm policy was crafted, there were 6 million American farms. Now there are 2.75 million, and 96 percent of all rural income is generated off the farm.

“Without risk, there are no opportunities. Without opportunities, there is no creativity,” he said. “There are two ways to deal with change – either accommodate it or fear it.”

Many of those testifying Tuesday hoped the change Dorr was referring to meant less reliance on trade-distorting commodity payments for other states and more support for Maine’s diversified rural sector.

William Bell of the Maine Association of Conservation Districts told Dorr that he hoped the proposed farm bill would “do something which has not happened for decades, since the Dust Bowl. You need to lead agricultural policy, not follow Congress. And we in Maine will stand behind you.”