HARVEST: January + February

HARVEST: Farm and Food News From Maine and Beyond

Check back each month for a selection of articles, stories, and trends you might have missed.

The Department of Labor is looking more closely at farm labor and agricultural exemptions, making farmers think harder about doling out non-farming tasks to hired hands—just as Maine farms are gearing up for farm hand hiring season, and it looks like interest is up.

What should you ask the Presidential candidates about farm and food policy? Tom Philpott gives his take, from water resources to labor practices.

Growing rice in Maine? One experimental farmer is trying it out on his clay soils.

Other Northern climates are experimenting with farming in the winter—like in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, or using geothermal in Nebraska.

The New England Food Vision just launched a shiny new website, with lots of tools to explore how our food system can change in the next decade.

Michael Pollan has a new Netflix special, Cooked, exploring the elements and history of cooking.

Wondering about climate change and farming? Farmers may have already changed the climate, a few thousand years ago.

Freezing technology infrastructure is leaping some hurdles for the local livestock industry in Maine.

Farm transition planning can be tricky, but farmers in Maine are finding lots of unique solutions.

Challenges facing new farmers are spurring an increasing number of incubator farms across the country. Which is good, because there are also many (mostly financial) reasons to quit farming, when the system doesn’t provide enough pay.

Curious about the history of the food pyramid, now MyPlate? We were too, and NPR provides some answers.

Food waste is getting a share of the spotlight these days, and groceries in Maine are trying to combat the problem, although there are more consumer barriers than we might expect for low-income families to waste less.

Food costs more in Maine than elsewhere in the U.S., but partially because Mainers are willing to pay more for knowing where their food comes from (and there are some strategies for cutting that cost a little, too).

Food banks across Maine are serving an increasing number of Mainers in need—and from local farms if possible (and we hope that can increase).

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