Maine Farms & Food #149

John Piotti:

I began to learn more and more and one of the things I learned that if we're serious about having sustainable rural communities, it's impossible to not have sustainable agriculture at the centerpiece. And so for 20 years of my life that's been my focus.

Ted Quaday:

We have an apprenticeship program where there are more than 200 people every year come through that program. They get an opportunity to work on farms, they learn about farming, they talk with farmers, and they sort of begin to acquire the real interest in it. We give them the tools they're going to need to be successful through this program of training them.

John Piotti:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

this is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 149, Maine Farms and Food, airing for the first time on Sunday, July 20, 2014. Greek physician Hippocrates once said, let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food. It has become increasingly clear that there is no more important way to approach health. Doctors need to care about food. We need to care about where it comes from and how our patients are getting it. Today we speak with John Piatti of the Maine Farmland Trust and Ted Quade of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners association about these very issues. Thank you for joining.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Listeners of the Dr. Lisa Radio RM podcast know that we place a premium on environmental concerns and environmental efforts. Having lived in Maine for most of my life, I know that I, along with my family depend quite a lot on Maine's farmland and the food that is produced by Maine's farmland and also by Maine farmers and gardeners. So today I am very pleased to have with us John Piatti and Ted Quade. John Piatti is the President and CEO of the Maine Farmland Trust, an award win statewide nonprofit that works to protect farmland, support farmers and advance farming. Ted Quade is the Executive Director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners association the organization works with farmers and gardeners and rural communities to increase the growth of organic crops, but also to recycle natural resources and increase local food production. Thanks so much for coming in and being with us today.

Ted Quaday:

Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I really like the fact that when we asked each of you to come in separately, you said, well, we work together anyway, and we'd like to come in together. That speaks to something that I think is very important in Maine, that collaborative notion. And this has been important for each of your organizations, I think. John, why don't you tell me a little bit about the Maine Farmland Trust first, and then we'll talk about the collaboration that you're doing with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.

John Piotti:

Sure. Well, Maine Farmland Trust is a statewide membership organization like mofca. We've been around a lot shorter period of time, about 15 years, our roots. Actually, many of the people who founded the organization, including myself, were MAFCA members, and one of them was Russell Libby, the executive director of mofca. So there's been connections from the beginning. And I think both organizations focus on the future of farming and care dearly about it, but focus a little differently. And our principal focus is on the land side of things. We worry about protecting farmland, so it's going to be here for the next generation. And we worry a lot about land access, making sure that land is affordable and available to both the next generation of farmer, but also existing farmers, existing farmers who may wish to expand or existing farmers who may currently lease property in that property is at risk, they risk losing it, which happens all the time. So those are our principal focuses. We're in the middle of an effort to work with a thousand farm families and protect 100,000 acres of land. It's a six year effort. We're about halfway through, and we're almost halfway of our goal. Close to 40,000 acres and about 400 farm families at this point.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how does this intersect with the work that you're doing, Ted so MOFCA

Ted Quaday:

has been at work in Maine for 43 years at this point. It really, I think, is the foundational movement within the state around good food and family farms and organic food production. So given that idea that it's foundational, so much has risen out of the work that MAFKA has done, particularly around training family farmers, training organic farmers to really be successful on their land, giving them the tools that they need to go out and produce the food that people are indicating they really want, which I call a good food movement, basically, at many, many different levels producing food that people feel comfortable consuming so they don't have to worry about whether or not they're ingesting, let's say, synthetic pesticides or other elements of the food. So what we're doing is we are working with groups all over the state, not only the Maine Farmland Trust, but other organizations that are dedicated to moving new money into the farm economy, investing in new businesses, new distribution ideas, new processing ideas. It's just a really. For me, coming into Maine, seven months here, I see that there's an incredible web of interest in the issue and the activities around good food and that there are many, many groups who work together to get that done. And it really will take all of us to create what I think is a new paradigm for the food system, which is all about good food.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When Mofka came into being, it ended up having to be a little bit more, I think, forceful in putting its beliefs across. Because at that time, not everybody was understanding that organic food was important and not everybody was understanding that the quality of food actually did have an impact on the health and well being, not only of people, but of animals and the environment.

Ted Quaday:

I think that the original founders of the organization were really focused more on homesteading, coming in and carving out a piece of land, creating food that they would consume themselves or maybe trade within a the community that was being created. I think that's what that was about at that time. Over time, the organization has grown not only in the way it perceives the food web, if you want to call it that, but the importance of engaging at many, many different levels in creating a food system that is more healthful for all. The environment, people, the animals. You know, the whole idea around the

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

good food movement, Maine has been a bit of a hotspot for this back to the land, I guess, movement. This was Helen and Scott Nearing and living the good life. And I believe this was up in the Mid coast area. Did this have something to do with the work that Mofka began?

Ted Quaday:

I think that's true. I think that the folks that came back during that era, which was in the 1970s and a little bit before that, were really dedicated to. They were rejecting the consumer society that maybe John and I grew up in. They were saying, look, this is a society that we want to create a new system, but they weren't thinking in terms of grand social change today. I think that movement has evolved to the point where we can say this is a movement about good food in many, many different forms. And that MAFCA in Maine has been A leader, and not only in Maine, but around the country. I mean, I first engaged with MOFCA when I was working with Farm Aid, which is another group that's advocating for family farmers. And, you know, my impression at the initial outset, which was in 1998, was that this is a group that really has its finger on the pulse of what's going on nationally as well. So they were creating a movement in the state, but it was resonating around the country. And Maine has been a leader throughout that entire period, the last 15, 20 years, 30 years almost, in that good food movement.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When I think about farms, John, I think about the farms that. For example, my children's father, their grandfather was a potato farmer up in Aristook County. The publisher of Maine magazine, his grandfather had a family farm. I think it was in New Brunswick. So technically not in Maine. But I don't necessarily think of organic farms. A lot of these farms, though, were working without the use of pesticides far before pesticides even became broadly used. You've seen some really interesting things happen with farmers economically over the last 50, 75 years, I think. Talk to me about some of the

John Piotti:

changes that mean there's been tremendous change and there's also tremendous opportunity for the future. The best summary I know of where farming in Maine stands now is something I stole from Stu Smith, who was the Commissioner of Agriculture about 25 years ago. And he's described what's occurred in Maine farming the last 15 or 20 years. A bifurcation, two tracks, if you will. In one track is exactly what you describe. What a lot of people classically think of as a farm, the potato farm, the dairy farm. It's clear on the landscape what it is. You see the cows roaming around. There's a small silo, there's tractors. The other tract has gone by different names over the last 15, 20 years. But the term that's usually applied now is local agriculture. And they may actually be growing the same products. The distinction is how they market. These are farms that are marketing direct, either through a farmer's market or csa, or through a farm stand. And they've cut out the middlemen. And in some ways, that's the biggest change in farming in Maine is commodity agriculture. And I'll put that first category, I'll apply that label to it. They are growing those products and selling them to a processor or to a wholesaler. They're selling their products as commodities. Commodity agriculture has not worked well for the farmer. The middlemen have gotten the money. And if you look at it Historically, they've gotten a larger and larger chunk of the money and the farmers get squeezed out. And what we've seen in the last 15, 20 years, through the efforts of MOFCA and other entities that have really created the opportunity for farmers to sell direct. And that's where we've seen great growth. Having said that, you can't look at a trend line and assume this is also the future. None of us have a crystal ball, but I think most of us who look at agriculture have been at it for 20 years like I have in the state, think that the future will involve agriculture at multiple scales, working in many ways. And that's good because these two tracks are mutually reinforcing. You take the small organic goat farmer who is maybe making a great Chevron and selling at the farmer's market. Her economics only work because we also have a dairy industry in the state that allows her to buy grain in bulk. So it's not us versus them kind of thing. We're all in it together. But there's huge opportunity in the future. Maine has, although in my work I worry about good farmland that's potentially lost to development, it's a major concern. But there's also vast stretches of the state, millions of acres that were farmed 130 years ago that are not farmed today and have not been developed and could be returned to agricultural use. Huge opportunity in the state.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I believe we're seeing this more and more. We're seeing young people who are coming back into the state and with the specific desire to be farmers.

Ted Quaday:

I think that's true. And one of the interesting things about the evolution of the family farm and the farm movement generally at this point is that I think a lot of these young people who are coming back, and there are more and more, Maine actually is one of the leading states in the country in terms of bringing young people back to the farm. And in part because of mofka's work, I think in terms of training them and getting them ready. But one of the things that they're coming into it with is the idea that this is a business and we need business training to make it work. But we also have entrepreneurial ideas about how we're going to sell our food. A lot of them think in terms of value added right on the farm. Cheese is one element of that value added process. And there are just dozens and dozens and dozens of others where people are saying, you know, I could make a jam here. I could create a label. I could market that at the local farmers market. Or maybe five or six different markets. That kind of thinking is only the opportunity is created by the existence of the market. So the farmers markets are growing. The CSA concept, where you subscribe, is growing. That creates the opportunity to be entrepreneurial. And it's really taking off in the state. It's drawing people back.

John Piotti:

If I could just follow up on that. Ted's absolutely right. We've seen a huge, huge increase in beginning farmers. In fact, if you look at young farmers, farmers under age 34, in the last agricultural census that just came out, the number of farmers in that category in Maine grew by nearly 40%. That's phenomenal. The national average was 1.5%. And this is an example of where MOFCA and Maine Farmland Trust work together. MOFCA has done a fantastic job of inspiring and training young people to be farmers. But those farmers then need to find land. And that's where we come in, holding hands with people to maybe help them go through the financing process or help them find land. We have a program called Farm Link that helps make these connections, but also by protecting land, we make that land more affordable for the next generation. Once land is protected with a conservation easement, that property will sell at its value for farm use rather than its value for development. And that's critical for a lot of entering farmers.

Ted Quaday:

It really is crucial. Availability of land is one of a number of issues that young family farmers face. Availability of credit is another key issue. Opportunities to increase market size and so on are other challenges. But John is right. Yesterday, in fact, we invited John to come over to our staff meeting to talk about the Farmland Trust, its work, and various ways in which farmers can transfer land so that it becomes protected. And, you know, the staff was very appreciative, and we've talked a lot about how we can increase our connection. Even though there's a strong connection between these two groups already, we've talked about other ways we can increase that.

John Piotti:

Well, you just mentioned credit, and I think it's a fascinating project. It's in early stages, but Maine Farmland Trust and in MOFCA are also partnering on looking at the establishment of an agricultural credit union. And financing is often a big problem with farmers. When you get a mortgage on your house, you can right now get a fairly nice rate, but you get that rate because that mortgage can be sold on the secondary market and federal guarantees are involved, and you get 3.7% or whatever. If that was a farm property, you would not be able to get a rate of less than probably 6%. So financing that's just one example. But financing generally is a real barrier and if we can create a new tool to assist people in the agricultural industries, be it for land purchasing or equipment or or operational capital, that is one critical piece of what we need to see agriculture blossom as it could.

Ted Quaday:

And I think it's particularly acute for organic farmers because the powers that be still view the organic system as a somewhat experimental and risky it's a higher risk entity than a conventional farm to them. To us, it's a little bit frustrating to have to deal with that. So creating new vehicles for bringing cash into the system to allow the expansion is crucial.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

when I think about organic food and I think about the farmland that you're describing, John, I wonder if sometimes there might not be an issue with conventional farmland that's been out there in use for generations that an organic farmer might want to come in and start to use There must be some rehabilitation of the land that needs to take place for that to happen.

Ted Quaday:

Yeah. I'll just talk a little bit about the certification process. There's a requirement for anyone who wants to farm organically that that land is treated as an organic entity for three years before it can be certified as organic. So that's really the. It's a transitional period. And right now, you know, our organization is working with 30 farmers in this state today that are interested in transitioning their land. They're at one stage or the other of that process, but there are requirements that the US Is the certifying with a body that creates the rules, and then we go out and verify that those rules are being followed through our certification services program.

John Piotti:

And for farmers who wish to transition to organic, that issue of timing can be a real factor because you can't afford to be paying a mortgage on a property that you can't use. Maine Farmland Trust deals with farmers of all types. We. We deal with conventional farmers, organic farmers, but a lot of the young people who were helping get on farms happen to be organic farmers. And sometimes what we will do is if we acquire a property for the purpose of protecting it and then reselling it at a more affordable rate, we might lease it to them at a very affordable rate or hold onto it for a while while some of this transition period can occur. And also, there's a lot of land in Maine that has. Even though it was not being farmed organically per se, it often had been left fallow or there was nothing being applied to it. So you can transition it to organic sooner than you think. But there's other properties that are really tough. We were protecting an orchard property in central Maine a few years ago. We thought we had a young couple who wanted to buy it, but there have been so many chemicals often put on orchards that there were still residuals in the soil. They probably ultimately could have passed some tests for organic certification, but they just didn't want to farm there. And so there are downsides, too. But by and large, I think these are transitions for people who want to make them work. There are entities between MAFCA and Maine Farmland Trust, both with training and the access side, and we can usually make it happen.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We had Cecily Pingree on the show, I think, a couple years ago now, and she was talking about bedding the farm, which was about Maine's own organic milk and some of the struggles that the organic milk farmers were going through. And I think several of them were conventional farmers that had transitioned into Organic. And there's a very real business aspect to creating a product that then goes to a nationally organized chain and has to be. Really has to meet the quality test up against, say, Oakhurst, let's just say, and that there was some issues, there were some struggles with that. How do people who want to be entrepreneurial sort of hang on through the struggles and make it financially?

Ted Quaday:

You know, it's really tough. We have farmers who are members of Mafka who are closely involved with this. Moo Milk label is the new label in Maine that's just been created in the last few years. It's 12 dairy farms at this point, I think, and growing, hopefully growing. It's just a huge challenge. It's still a huge challenge for those folks. And hanging on economically is the biggest piece of it, I'm sure. You know, it's weathering that storm, and those are risk takers. You know, they have to have credit available. They have to be willing to take the risk to take to operate in that capacity. It's not easy. And, you know, it does beg for a response at the state level in terms of policy development around issues where we can support these entrepreneurs who are off doing things that are somewhat different than the more conventional producers, but are producing a product that, you know, I have to say, I think it's a higher quality product. I think it's more healthful for people. I think it's more healthful for. For the environment, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, that's an investment the state ought to be making at the policy level. And I think that we, you know, we. We keep our eye on it. We work on it. John, as the Maine Farmland Trust, I'm sure, tracks that stuff pretty closely as a former legislator and a leader within the legislature, keeps his eye on that stuff as well. So there's a. There's huge opportunities there as well in terms of policy change.

John Piotti:

Ted's absolutely right that there are a lot of people in farming who are very entrepreneurial. In fact, I would say farmers are some of the most entrepreneurial people I know. If they're in business, they've had to be very creative, good at problem solving, ability to manage a whole range of tasks. And mostly, when we see young people getting into the business, they are viewing it as a business. They're doing it in part because they want to be connected to community and they care about the future of this planet. But they're also taking it from the perspective of this is a business, and we have to make the numbers work. So we're seeing a lot of very creative, entrepreneurial people enter the field. And the way they connect to agriculture varies depending on what track they're taking. It's very entrepreneurial just to start a small farm. It's very entrepreneurial to develop some lines of direct marketing. But if you want to go to that sort of next step, if you want to scale up a little bit, if you want to be part of a milk producer, if you want to aggregate your product with other farms, if you want to do value added processing of some of your product, not just grow apples, but make apple pie and make preserves and the like, that can be really a challenge. And I think that's really the next wave. If you look at the last 15, 20 years, as I said earlier, you can summarize it in that we kept farming alive in this state and allowed it to grow by people being creative and finding direct markets. But the truth is that the vast majority of Mainers, it's great that CSAs have become popular in farmers markets, have become popular, and they will continue to grow, and that's wonderful. But the vast majority of Mainers are not going to get most of their food by being a member of a CSA or going to a farmer's market. They're going to shop at a supermarket. They're going to get their food through an institution, hospital, school, nursing home, whatever. There's a real need for those farmers who wish to scale up a little bit. And. And the goal here needs to be to maintain the best benefits of local. And I don't just mean freshness and quality. I mean that most of the benefit accrues back to the farmer. How do we do that as we scale up a little bit? And that's Moo Milk is a great example of that. Moo Milk is an entity that is, in essence, owned by those dozen farmers who participated in it. Gives them a way of accessing a wholesale market, but still retain some of the benefits themselves. And I think that's the next wave. It's rebuilding the locally oriented food infrastructure that we used to have in the state. 75 years ago, every town had a corn shop. There were small creameries and slaughterhouses everywhere. We've lost that. And the entrepreneurial needs to rebuild that are tougher than just starting a single farm or going to a farmer's market. And I think Ted's absolutely right. If the state is serious about this, this is a very appropriate place to infuse some dollars and technical assistance to help spur the kind of economic opportunities that are possible.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I know you've mentioned a few times about Maine being having this infrastructure in place. And I know that around Civil War time, we were a breadbasket.

John Piotti:

Absolutely.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Of the Northeast. You know, we were rivaling, I guess, New Jersey. Somehow that fell away, I guess. But it seems the fact that we've had it before means we should be able to do it again. Part of this, I think, comes back to how we educate the next generation or the current generation.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm not sure that there is a

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

lot being done in schools right now with agriculture.

Ted Quaday:

I think there's a blossoming movement at the national level. I know there are programs in the state, farm to school programs that are operated by nonprofit organizations and funded through various grant type programs where there are opportunities to engage kids in organic gardening, engage them with a school garden, help bring learning opportunities from the garden into the classroom and vice versa. Those programs exist and they're growing. They're growing across the country. And in Maine, I know there are some. Some of those opportunities exist already. So I just see that continuing to grow. Even in Portland, where, you know, the mayor has committed to bringing 50% of the food that goes into the school lunch program, sourcing it from Maine. That alone will create awareness among young people about what their food is, where it comes from, who's growing it, how it's being grown, et cetera. That's all good stuff. And I think that that whole movement is on a trajectory that even goes beyond the organic movement, which is continuing to grow as well. I mean, I just think that people are really interested in not only helping kids understand where their food's coming from, how it's being grown, et cetera, but in bringing that high quality food into the schools and into other institutions.

John Piotti:

I'd agree with Ted completely that there's a lot happening in Maine in this area. Portland's a great example. The local school district that I'm part of, I live in unity. I live there. Ted works there and RSU3 has been a state leader in that area. Portland recently surpassed us. But up to a couple years ago, we were sourcing about 30% of our food locally. So there are things that are happening on the education side. Ag in the classroom, which was really at a point of being so small it was irrelevant, has really shot forward in the last couple of years. A lot of the money that goes into those ag license plates, those colorful ag license plates, helps fund that. So there are things happening. School gardens have become very popular. There's more and more occurring on that level. But I Agree with you completely, Lisa. Education is so critical here and there's a need for so much more. Both MAFCA and Maine Farmland Trust, we spend a lot of our energy just sort of getting the word out. And it's easier today than 20 years ago when I started doing this. 20 years ago you talk about there's great opportunity in farming and people would look at you like you were crazy. So today you don't have to go over that hurdle. But there are other things you have to help people understand how their buying power at the store really makes a difference and help them understand some of the choices they have for what kind of products they buy. So there's always a huge need for education. It's just the level and maybe the sophistication of it has to change over time as public awareness changes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I agree with you that a lot more is being done with the whole Farm to school network and with bringing education about food and local food specifically into schools. I guess what I was referring to is that sort of the higher level of education that is required for one to go into farming. So, you know, there are. I have a liberal arts degree from Bowdoin and I'm sure I'm not the only person from Bowdoin who has thought, oh, it would be kind of nice to go run a farm someday. But there's really not much in my liberal arts background that would enable me to do that.

John Piotti:

It's interesting you mention that though, because a lot of the young farmers we're seeing, and I'm sure Ted will concur with this, are folks from liberal arts background. Maybe they get an apprenticeship through mofca. Many schools, including Bowdoin, now has a school garden and there are opportunities that didn't exist, but there are also more intensive opportunities that now exist. Kennebec Valley Community College, for instance, just started a two year bachelor's degree in agricultural sciences. MOFCA and MFT were both very involved in helping develop that curriculum. Andrew Marshall from mofka, I believe is one of the instructors over there. Unity College, that is in my backyard and I used to be a trustee for. They also now have a program in that area, College of the Atlantic. It's growing. There are more opportunities than there used to be and it's been really good. The KVCC one, Kembeck Valley Community College really pleases me because that was the first time that sort of a state institution that you could argue at times those kind of institutions can be a little bit more bureaucratic and maybe a little slower to respond. And they were right on this. And I really think that's going to make a great difference.

Ted Quaday:

I think that's right. And I think we need to grow the educational opportunities around learning how to farm. And certainly from my point of view, the organic perspective, MAFCA itself views itself as a trainer for the next generation of farmers. And Maine, and we do it through, we have an apprenticeship program where there are more than 200 people every year come through that program. They get an opportunity to work on farms, they learn about farming, they talk with farmers, and they sort of begin to acquire the real interest in it. And then we move from the apprenticeship program into our journeyperson program. We bring 30 new young farmers into the system every year and we train them over a two year period. We link them up with other organic farmers in the region so that they can have somebody to fall back to, to get advice, to talk through issues with. And we really, we feel, give them the tools that they're going to need through other training programs like work that we do with Maine Farmland Trust on land acquisition and business development and all of those other things. We give them the tools they're going to need to be successful through this program of training them.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I do think that Maine, given that we, the University of Maine is a land grant institution and we have this strong forestry background. And so I think the resources management is something that Maine has always been very good at. So I think just kind of maybe digging back in and going back to our roots a little bit will enable us to move forward.

Ted Quaday:

I think that that has the potential to happen. And I think it's going to happen because of the economic opportunity that's being created in the farm community and through the demand that consumers are bringing to the table. Literally. I mean, they are saying this is the kind of food we want. This is the kind of training our farmers are going to need to bring us that kind of food. So it's a moving object for sure. It's a moving target, I guess you could call it. But there are many, many different pieces of it that are continuing to build. Nothing I see falling away on any of these. This, the interest is just skyrocketing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

something that I think we're noticing more and more is that the more intellectual we all become and the more connected we become in sort of a wireless way, the more thoughts, the more brain power we're putting towards that aspect of being human, the more we want to get our hands back into the storage, the more we want to, I don't know, have chickens running around our yard. And, you know, people are now they have their honeycombs in the backyard. And so I think that's an, it's an interesting, we're at an interesting place because I think this generation that we are part of, and then the ones behind us, they kind of want it all and they think it's possible to have it all.

John Piotti:

I think you're right, and I don't think that's necessarily bad. And it's also not unprecedented. You think of something like the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 20th century, very similar. It was a period when everything was being produced at an industrial scale. So there was sort of this feeling that we're going to treasure things that are handcrafted and have an artisan origin. And I think there's certain things innate in being a human that you need, and it's good for your soul. And if you're not getting it in other parts of society, I think you will find an alternative way to get there. I think that's part of what we're seeing.

Ted Quaday:

I mean, it may seem obvious that I would like to or want to be a gardener, right? So I'm definitely a gardener. And I was out in the garden just Sunday planting beans, you know, planting the beans and planting a little cilantro so I could cut fresh cilantro and bring it into the house and make a little hot sauce of some kind or the other. Yeah, I think that that's. That's definitely a part of my existence, and not only because I'm an advocate on behalf of organic farms. I've been gardening almost my entire life in one way or the other. I was always finding a place to get a seed in the ground, you know, and maybe it is just a natural human desire to watch things grow or plant and create.

John Piotti:

We all want to live in a garden.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now, the two of you also have very interesting backgrounds in that you. I don't believe either one of you are from Maine originally, is that correct?

John Piotti:

That's correct.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Both of you are pretty well educated.

Ted Quaday:

I hope so.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes. But there was something about the positions that you currently hold that call to you somehow, this idea, the main Organic Farmers and gardeners.

Ted Quaday:

Well, yeah. To me, this job, this work that I'm doing with the Organic Farmers and Gardeners association is the culmination of everything that I've done in my professional life. At one level or the other, everything I've done led me here, and I really believe that. And I think that it's just the perfect place for me right now because there's so much energy in Maine and there's so much leadership being exerted and, you know, exemplified all over the state that it's just really a very strong place to be.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you have a background in journalism and also research, is that right?

Ted Quaday:

Well, yeah, I've done a little bit of the journalism piece and some political activity and research as well.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you understand that this outreach is just as important as any of the educational activities that are being done within mofca. For example, the Common Ground Fair. I mean, this has always been a great sort of face to the community. Right.

Ted Quaday:

The Common Ground Fair is the emissary for the whole movement, in my view. I mean, it really exemplifies what we're talking about when we're talking about a whole systems approach to what we think this society could look like. It has the food element, it has the craft element, you know, the handcrafted element. It has the commitment to the environment, it has the commitment to community. It has the music. It's just really the whole thing right there. It's common Ground Fair, and it makes perfect sense. It really is that common ground that we're as a. As a society today. And there's an element within that society that's looking to that kind of a. Of an expression of what it is we desire.

John Piotti:

In my case, my family has deep Roots in Maine. But I grew up on, of all places, Nantucket island, which was a very different world in the 60s and 70s than what it became. And I'll try to keep this short, but what happened for me is I remember a reflective summer between college and graduate school when I realized that I probably could never go home. At that same window when I was in college, real estate prices had gone up tenfold in a period of a couple years. My home had become commoditized, if you will. And I realized that, why is it that rural places seem to go one route or another? They either wither on the vine or they become hip, and Chicago getting popular, but either way, there are no real opportunities for the locals. And so that became my focus. And I started thinking about what I could do to help keep rural places vital. And as soon as I could, I moved up to Maine, where most of my family was, and started diving into that kind of work 27 years ago. It took a while before that shifted to agriculture. I ended up co chairing the Comprehensive Plan Committee in my community of unity with a dairy farmer. And after he had sort of sized me up as dairy farmers will do, he challenged me. He said, john, you keep saying you care about rural places, but you know absolutely nothing about farming. And he was right. And like everyone else, 25 years ago, I felt farming was the past, not the future. And he took me under his wing. He mentored me. I began to learn more and more. And one of the things I learned that if we're serious about having sustainable rural communities, it's impossible to not have sustainable agriculture at the centerpiece. And so for 20 years of my life, that's been my focus.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Each of your organizations does things that I think don't immediately. One wouldn't immediately think of as being related to the work that you do. For example, I knew that the Maine Farmland Trust does a lot of work with art.

John Piotti:

We do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So tell us a little bit about

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

that and why that has become important.

John Piotti:

Well, we run a gallery, and we also have done a number of other things to help get the word out. You mentioned Cecily Pingree and Bedding the Farm. The idea for Bedding the Farm came when she was visiting one of the farmers showcased in that film for us, because two years before, she had done a series of films called Meet your farmer for Maine Farmland Trust. And we've always wanted. We've always felt that a great part of the challenge was just getting people to have a better understanding about agriculture. We are generally two or three generations removed from the farm. And a lot of other things can take care of themselves if people just learn more. The gallery was interesting. When I took over at Maine Farm Literacy, I was the founder of the organization. I didn't work there. I was just on the board. I came on as their executive director eight years ago, and we had no photographs of all the farms we had worked with. So I hired a good photographer. They were great photographs. We had what was then a fairly empty storefront location because we had three employees, not the 25 we have now. So we hung them up and. And people thought we had a gallery, and we said, yes, we have a gallery. But the deeper story there is that art can be an incredibly powerful way of helping engage more people and talk about what we really need in agriculture. Ten years ago, when we found the gallery, you could easily argue less true today than then, but at that point in time, you could easily argue that part of the problem was that people had misconceptions about farming. And part of it, the art that depicted farming, didn't help. It was either overly nostalgic or depicted the farmer as, you know, this sort of country bumpkin. But art is a way of bringing some of the vibrancy of farming before people, bringing some of the politics of farming and the politics of choices you make for the first food you buy. And so now, over eight years, we've had maybe 40, 50 different shows, and they have engaged people and opens people's eyes. And this is not just a Maine Farmland Trust phenomenon. There's something now called agart. There's actually a term for it. And if you want to sort of look at this bigger picture, if you look at the future, we're not going to create the kind of food system we need unless people begin to think differently. And ultimately, through all of our history as humans, you've needed art in order to connect with people's hearts and open their minds to thinking differently.

Ted Quaday:

Well, I think that's absolutely true. I would agree with what John's saying, you know, and I think of what Mafka's expression of that is. Part of it is the handcrafted items and the pottery and that sort of thing. But also, each year, there's a competition for a fair poster. And the fair posters are famous all over the state and beyond in terms of what they depict and how they link the people with the activity that's going on. And that's really what, to me, that's what art is about. It's reinterpreting and telling a story. And so on. And so it's just you can't pull it away from whatever the cultural activity is. And food is, if nothing else, it is so strongly cultural and so directed by how you grew up in it that you know, to me it's think of it as a really fine dinner, as an ephemeral sort of piece of artwork. It's there for 20 or 30 minutes and it's gone. I mean, you've eaten it and it's, you know, it's a beautiful thing. You go to Vinland where David Levy is the chef and he's creating these little masterpieces every night. You know, that's the kind of, that's the way I start to think about art. You know, it's just so embedded in our culture that you wouldn't have the same kind of thing going on without it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Ted, you had a bit of a tough act to follow with Russell Libby. I mean he was the. He was just. When you thought of Mofka, you thought of Russell Libby. He was such a part of the fabric of your organization. What's that been like for you?

Ted Quaday:

Well, it's totally true. The beauty of it is that I met Russell. Russell was one of the first people I got acquainted with at a group that no longer exists in Washington. He was down working with a group of activists on food related issues called the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. And he was great, a key member there. And I had just come on board with Farm Aid and I was. Food was an issue for me but it wasn't what it is today for me. And so I Started talking with Russell, and I realized that his influence within that organization was phenomenal. He would stand up and talk. Everyone would stop what they were doing and listen to what he had to say. You know, so I've respected Russell. I respected him throughout his. The time that I knew him as a clear thinker and positive force within the movement nationally. And so, you know, I was devastated along with a lot of other people when he passed away. I really. I was across the country. I was doing my thing out on the west coast, and I couldn't believe it, you know, I just really couldn't. And at that point, you know, it didn't occur to me that maybe there was an opportunity in that. But as it turned out, I ended up out here doing the work, trying to carry on the work that Russell was so dedicated to, and which I'm dedicated to as well. And I don't see myself as trying to fill Russell's shoes. That's just not going to happen. It's not possible. What I see is that we have a community in Maine that's really dedicated to building a food movement that can be transformational in this society. And I'm dedicated to that.

John Piotti:

And if I can just add to that, Russell was a really close friend of mine and a mentor and a member, a founder of Maine Farmland Trust and a board member until he passed away. And so many of us in Maine have relied on him for years, and he has been such an amazing leader. And yet, I also want to comment that I feel Ted is really the perfect personality. No one can replace Russell, but he's really the perfect person to carry on Russell's work and to step in and lead that organization. Mofka's board did a great job.

Ted Quaday:

Thanks, John.

John Piotti:

I feel that earnestly, and I hear it from all different circles, and one of the many qualities Russell had. He had a brilliant mind, and he was very capable, but he also just had this real, steady, even hand and this attitude that if you focus on what's right, things are going to work. And that's one place. I don't know you that well, Ted. It's only been seven months, but you seem to have that sort of same kind of patience and perspective. And I think more than anything, that's what's really critical.

Ted Quaday:

I think that's true patience. Thank you for the compliments. I really do appreciate that. But patience really is a part of it. You know, the movement is so varied and so wide and so enthusiastic that you have to be able to take a bigger view, look more Widely and say, well, where can we move this and how can we capture that energy and move that forward now and maybe we can wait on something else. There's a lot of analysis that goes into it, a lot of thinking and a lot of talking with a lot of folks, because to me, that's the way you really get there. Big picture movie.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

People who are listening to this show, I'm sure, are thinking to themselves, well, perhaps I fall over here on the spectrum. Perhaps I want to go back and be a farmer, or maybe I'm just an accountant, but I'd like to somehow eat local foods. What are some beginning steps that you can suggest to people that would enable them to not only contribute to the health of their own families, but also to the health of the farmers and the economic viability of the state?

Ted Quaday:

I always, the first thing I always say is start a garden and make it organic. You know, that's the first piece. And, you know, Mafka does offer a training program. Every April. We run 30 or 40 different workshops around the state where you can go and learn from a master gardener how to, how to get that process going. You know, you can shop at the farm, farmers market, or you can get a. Make an arrangement for the CSA program with a. A local farmer. Those are two key elements you can get active in your own community. I always say, vote with your fork. You know, let people know, not only at the grocery store do you vote with your fork, but you vote with your fork. When you go to the ballot box and pick the candidates that you want to send to the legislature, to the city council, find people who are really dedicated to what you believe in and send them there so that you can talk with them about how to make change.

John Piotti:

I agree with everything Ted said said. It starts with what you grow and what you eat. But there are all sorts of other ways to have an impact, and one of it is political. And as someone who served in the legislature and chaired the Ag Committee at one point, it is really true that when citizens call you up, it makes a difference. And we still live in a state that is small enough where you can have access to your elected officials. And it doesn't take a lot of people to sway things one way or another. But I also want to comment on some other ways I think you can make a difference. And it doesn't all have to be state policy. So much occurs at the local level. One of the things the Maine Farmland Trust does is we provide services to municipalities who may be thinking about doing comprehensive planning. And we want to make sure that they incorporate farming into it. Or maybe they have a current ordinance that has overly restrictive requirements for signage that don't allow a farm to put up a farm stand or something like that. Communities in Maine are dying for volunteers to get engaged, and there's so many things you can do at the local level that really can have an impact. That decision on whether to extend that sewer line in town out by a farmer's field will be made by people often who don't think about the impact that might have on the farm. And it raises their tax valuations. It basically forces that land to get developed because economically there's no other option. Just having people at the table who are cognizant in thinking of these things and raising the questions can make a huge, huge difference. So it's not just something that is beyond you and that you have to be organized and part of a political effort to effect in your daily actions of how you eat and how you interconnect with your community. What you say at town meeting, what committee you're on in town, you can have a huge impact.

Ted Quaday:

One more shameless pitch. Join mofka.

John Piotti:

And maybe we're both membership organizations and we rely on our members.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, Ted, you've just given the website, so give that again. The website.

Ted Quaday:

It's mafca.org okay.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how about you, John?

John Piotti:

It's mainfarmlandtrust.org well, we are very privileged

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

that we've had the two of you in the studio with us today. We've been speaking with John Piatti, the president and CEO of the Maine Farmland Trust, and Ted Quade, the Executive Director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. I know that my family and I have benefited greatly from the work that you are doing and thank you so much for coming in today.

John Piotti:

Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 149, main farms and food. Our guests have included John Piotti and Ted Quade. For more information on our guests and extended interviews, visit Dr. Lisa.org the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on itunes. For a preview of each week's show, sign up for our e Newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page, follow me on Twitter and as bountiful one on Instagram. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our main farms and food show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.