MFT is a member-powered organization. Throughout our 20th year, we are highlighting some of these amazing members. Read the first batch of member profiles below:

Andrew Sevey

Broadcrest Farm. Ripley, ME

We have to have our farms because if we don’t have our farms, rural America is dead, period.  As a lifelong farmer, I saw some beautiful tracts of land that were subdivided. Development has a place but the best farmland needs to be to feed the people, it doesn’t need to be developed.   We have to stay on the forefront of protecting the land, the public and landowners need to all be educated on how important it is to protect farmland-- without it, we won’t have a food supply. Once the farms are broken up, it’s hard to put them back together.  We need to be able to take care of ourselves, and our state.

Member since 2014. Protected their farm in 2013.

Carrie Whitcomb

Springdale Farm. Waldo, ME

It was my grandmother's relentless passion for farming and her farmland that led her to MFT.  She shivered at the thought of her beloved ground being developed. Protecting the farmland from future development through MFT put her mind at ease, knowing that someone could always farm here.  It also helped facilitate important conversations about transitioning the farm to the next generation. It is my hope to continue to transform our cows' milk into delicious cheese and dairy products that I can share with my community and beyond while carrying on the family's farming tradition.

Member since 2017. Protected their farm in 2015.

David Flanagan

Viking Lumber. Belfast, ME

Hopefully, over the last 20 years,  awareness has grown enough to help create an economy of appreciation for more healthy foods and the local, small farms, so our farmers can continue their hard work and thrive.

Member since 2003.

Jodi Paloni

Writer. Jefferson, ME. 

As the daughter of farmers on both sides of the family from the mid-Atlantic region, my move to New England as a young adult in the late eighties to attend a graduate environmental studies program was part of my commitment to work on land preservation after seeing what had become of my hometown hills after credit card companies and plastics industry moved in. I landed in education, hoping to affect young hearts and minds to learn and love a place as I had, to love it enough to grow up and work to protect it. This past summer, living five weeks on a Forever Farm at MFT’s Fiore Art Center, eating food grown on the land, I got to see up close and on many levels how MFT is working in Maine. My knowledge and support of the organization have only just begun.

Writer-in-Residence at Joseph A. Fiore Art Center 2018.

Visit our 20th Anniversary website to learn more about our 20th year!

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