Farmers complain about inspection delays

AUGUSTA – Farmers complained Monday to the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee that there are not enough inspectors to meet state law and argued additional funding should be included in the two-year state budget to add inspectors.

“I have not had an inspection in 18 months,” Brooksville goat farmer Robert Bowen told lawmakers. “I sell raw milk to newborn children. If somebody gets sick, I am going to be in the Department of Agriculture’s office to get your insurance policy to help me because I have not had an inspection” for a year and a half.

Bowen said state law requires that his farm be inspected eight times a year. He said while lawmakers may be surprised to hear a group seeking more inspections, he said farmers know their ability to sell to the public depends on people having confidence in the safety of the food they are buying.

Heidi Klingelhofer, a small cheese seller from Georgetown, said lack of inspections is hampering the economic development possible from the growing market for specialty cheeses. She urged more inspectors to help spur the state’s economy.

“These inspection issues are so broad and far-reaching,” she said. “They have an impact on the economy and a health impact. Two people cannot cover the state; they just can’t do it.”

Julie Marie Bickford, executive director of the Maine Dairy Industry Association, said there is a growing need for inspectors in the state. She said in the budget passed two years ago the number of inspectors was reduced to two as the number of dairy farms decreased.

“We are very concerned about an increasingly growing need for a third inspector,” she said. “I am very proud to say that we now have operating dairy farmers in all 16 counties.”

Bickford said the inspectors do more than simply inspect the farms. She said they are instrumental in helping farmers deal with many issues and are particularly helpful to new farms.

Agriculture Commissioner Seth Bradstreet said the agency has considered the need for additional staff, but he does not have the resources to fund another inspector.

“We certainly understand the need for one, but we also understand the need that there is a structural gap that the governor needs to fill,” he said.

Bradstreet said he will work with his staff to see if there is a way to achieve the goal of more inspectors within existing resources. He said cross-training staff may be part of the solution.

“We are looking at ways to be creative,” he said. “Maybe we can cross-train some of the … consumer protection people, [who] could at least pick up these samples rather than have the inspectors actually go there and pick them up.”

But while Bradstreet is trying to stay within his proposed budget, some members of the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee believe the agency budget is not realistic.

“He told us he was told by the governor to bring forward a budget 2 percent lower than it is now,” said Sen. John Nutting, D-Leeds. “I don’t know of any other department that was told to do that, and the committee is going to look into that in the next few weeks.”

Nutting is Senate chairman of the committee. He has no doubt there needs to be additional inspection staff after hearing the testimony on the budget.

“I was not aware that some of these specialty cheese makers have gone 18 months without an inspection,” he said. “That can’t continue.”

Nutting said it is fortunate that there have not been any health problems as the result of the lack of inspections. But, he said, that luck may not continue and he praised those who testified about the lack of inspections.

“They did the right thing,” he said, “and we will do the right thing, I think, on this in our committee.”

The budget hearings continue for the next four weeks, and then the Appropriations Committee will deliberate on the governor’s proposals before making its recommendations to the full Legislature.