PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 23, 2020
In any given year, farming is a notoriously risky business: It’s too dry or it’s too wet. A nasty pest wipes out the tomatoes; a late freeze kills the apple blossoms; a fast, ferocious gale destroys the strawberry crop. Or the federally set price of milk doesn’t cover the cost for dairy farmers to produce it. And then there is the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic hit just as the growing season got underway – seeds already ordered and in some cases started, and crop plans in place – and just as farmers’ financial resources are at their lowest annual ebb. This year, on top of the usual risks, they face a spate of wholly new questions, constraints and unknowns.