PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 19, 2022
From 2002 to 2017, the number of organic dairy producers in Maine went from 20 to 79, while revenue grew by more than 10-fold. But Danone and others now want to cut costs by sourcing their milk from larger farms, some of which stretch the definition of “organic,” closer to their processing facilities. It’s up to people in the Northeast to decide whether losing dairy farms makes sense to them – financial or otherwise. There’s no reason the dairy industry can’t be saved; we’ve just got to decide it’s worth having. Maine should see this time as an opportunity: to unequivocally show that we value the rural parts of our state and the people who live there, and to build a healthy, robust food system that nourishes our regional economy as much as our bodies.