Action Alert: Urgent Action Needed for the Agriculture and Forestry Bond

The Maine Legislature is voting on the Agriculture and Forestry Bond IN THE NEXT DAY and we need your support to advance this critical source of funding for Maine agriculture.

Can you take 10 minutes TODAY or FIRST THING TOMORROW to call your legislators and ask them to support LD 2094, the Agriculture and Forestry Bond?

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Find Your State Senators

Find Your State Representatives

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Tips for contacting your legislators:

• We encourage you to CALL your legislators rather than email.
• Maine State Senate members are addressed as “Senator [Last name]”
• Maine State House members are addressed as “Representative [Last name]”
• Introduce yourself and tell them the town you live in, and, if you’re a farmer, you may want to share briefly about your farm.
• Tell them you are calling to ask them to support LD 2094, An Act to Authorize a General Fund Bond Issue to Support Maine's Agricultural and Forestry Sectors.
• The Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee recently voted to increase the funding amount of this proposed bond measure from $40 million to $45 million and it would provide critical funding for the following existing agricultural programs:
  
  • Maine Agriculture, Food and Forest Products Investment Fund
  • Farmers Drought Relief Grant Program
  • Maine Healthy Soils Program
  • Maine Working Farmland Access and Protection Program
  • Dairy Improvement Fund
• Investing in Maine’s agriculture, food, and forest industries strengthens our economy, protects our land, and keeps working families and rural communities thriving.
• Share any of your own reasons for why investing in Maine farms and farmland matters to you.
• The existing state programs that this bond issue would fund were created with broad-based support in response to important needs facing the hardworking Mainers who produce the food and forest products we consume and care for the land we all depend on. However, these programs must be funded adequately to be able to serve as an effective source of support for Maine’s agricultural and forestry sectors.

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Want to learn more about the Agriculture & Forestry Bond? Watch this video with farmers and foresters from around the state sharing why they support the Agriculture & Forestry Bond, and hear from farmers who gathered at the State House last week to urge lawmakers to put the bond on the ballot in the Maine Morning Star and on Fox 22/ABC 7.

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Please let us know if you reach your legislators and how the conversation goes. Feedback or questions? Reach out to Shelley Megquier, MFT’s Policy and Research Director at smegquier@mainefarmlandtrust.org.

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