20TH ANNIVERSARY MEMBERSHIP PROFILES
Chris Hamilton
Chris Hamilton BARRED OWL CREAMERY • WHITEFIELD, MAINE From our very first meeting in 1999, MFT had ambitious goals and a confident energy. I am in awe of MFT’s proactive…
Warren & Helen Balgooyen
Warren & Helen Balgooyen WISHING WELL FARM • NORRIDGEWOCK, MAINE Our friend Jim Hastings introduced me to MFT at an early meeting at his house in Skowhegan. As a career…
Ellen & Jack McAdam
Ellen & Jack McAdam MCDOUGAL ORCHARDS • SPRINGVALE, MAINE In 2000, the Maine Dept. of Agriculture, under the leadership of Bob Spear, began sponsoring an action plan for farmland protection…
David Flanagan
David Flanagan VIKING LUMBER • BELFAST, MAINE Hopefully, over the last 20 years, awareness has grown enough to help create an economy of appreciation for more healthy foods and the…
Frances Kilea
Frances Kilea APPLETON, MAINE I support MFT's mission in the abstract because I have long believed in the importance of a strong web of local commerce and food production, but…
Rob Tod
Rob Tod ALLAGASH BREWING COMPANY • PORTLAND, MAINE There are so many benefits to bringing industries like farming back to local communities: jobs, profits, sustainability, the value in knowing where…
Troy & Brenda White
Troy & Brenda White LIL BIT ORGANIC FARM • LAGRANGE, MAINE Some of the fields that we leased for hay went up for sale. We knew these fields would appeal…
Sam Hayward
Sam Hayward FORE STREET RESTAURANT • PORTLAND, MAINE In the time I’ve been cooking in Maine—that is, since 1974—everything has changed. Then, almost all food supplies for restaurants came from…
Jodi Paloni
Jodi Paloni WRITER • JEFFERSON, MAINE 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…
Stacy Brenner
Stacy Brenner BROADTURN FARM • SCARBOROUGH, MAINE My hope for the future is that the shelves of the Hannafords and Shaws and Market Baskets around the state are filled with…
Andrew Sevey
Andrew Sevey BROADCREST FARM • RIPLEY, MAINE We have to have our farms because if we don’t have our farms, rural America is dead, period. As a lifelong farmer, I…
Carrie Whitcomb
Carrie Whitcomb SPRINGDALE FARM • WALDO, MAINE It was my grandmother's relentless passion for farming and her farmland that led her to MFT. She shivered at the thought of her…
Heather & Phil Retberg
Heather & Phil Retberg QUILLS END FARM • PENOBSCOT, MAINE The future of farming in Maine hangs in the balance. Its future very much depends on what we do now…