Replying to take this off the top of the list.

Why? It is a good reminder for me to go.....
Now Ill have to keep posting everyday to keep it here!
This forum is starting to get more busy as the season comes on....I am interested in farming blueberries organicly as well as enough food to sustain me and my family for one year as vegetarians! I am not sure at my age how much of the day I have to devote to a garden of this caliber, but would hope to find out enough to make it work.

I think I'm going to go. I'll keep it up near the top.

It thrills me to hear about organic blueberries. There were several pices of land we would have bought when we were looking but they were surrounded by barrens. We wouldn't buy because of the chemicals.

Robin, we have the dilemna of selling our property (camp) that is surrounded in the blueberry barrens, we do have a edge of tree buffers...but the aquifer concerns me and the arial sprayings.

I hope to be there at the meeting,too.

bump

If you're going to be there I'll make sure I'm there. I imagine Martha will have us introduce ourselves. I will probably have my 11 year old daughter with me so we'll be easy to spot.

I hope to be there, it will be good to meet other gardenwebbers and know who it is here in these forums.

Saturday
April 9

Flagship Sponsor


Farmers' Rights to Apply Pesticides Challenged
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 8, 2005 Threats of a lawsuit have forced a Maine blueberry grower to abandon his legal right to aerial spray. The threat of legal action is an abuse of the court system and warrants immediate attention from Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The Maine blueberry farm of Jasper Wyman & Son was threatened with a lawsuit by activist groups unless the family farm sought Clean Water Act permits to aerially apply pesticides. Jasper Wyman & Son announced yesterday that it would cease aerial spraying because the legal defense costs would threaten the 125-year old farm's existence.

AFBF supports the farm's decision and understands that family farmers normally don't have the financial resources to defend themselves against lawsuits brought by coalitions of activist groups, said AFBF President Bob Stallman.

In spite of the activists' claims, for the last three decades, the EPA, and now the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, have said that Clean Water Act permits are not necessary for pesticides applied in compliance with federal pesticide laws and regulations. After the threat, the Wymans asked Maine DEP whether they needed a permit. Maine DEP said "no" and also issued a letter explaining this long-held policy to the activists' attorney.

"If the activists want changes, then they should take on the EPA or ask Congress to change laws, rather than attacking family-run businesses," Stallman said.

The decision by Wyman & Son to bow to activists' demands now increases the urgency for EPA and congressional action. This is the second blueberry farmer to relent in the face of lawsuits. The groups that threatened the lawsuits have stated they intend to establish a new "standard" and force their will on other farmers through threats of litigation.

In deciding not to aerially apply, Wyman and Son is not admitting any liability to apply for a permit or violation of the Clean Water Act. The farming operation also reserves the right to once again aerially apply if it can obtain protection against these lawsuits.

-30-

Contacts: Tracy Taylor Grondine
(202) 406-3642
tracyg@fb.org Richard Keller
(202) 406-3640
keller@fb.org

This page was last modified Fri Apr 08, 2005 at 12:06 pm

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((snip))
Hope it doesnt get too political there at the meeting.
I dont see trying to not comply with the clean water acts and just get approval before arial spraying?!

It seems that McDonalds has an invested interest with beef farmers and the likes, I wonder if the manager is encourage to hold meetings where the bureau may be bias and inturn the bias is quite influential to any attending.

Could be interesting to see what everyone talks about though.

I wonder if there is any gmo hype? new chems for the coming year?

just thinking-
Sue

>I wonder if there is any gmo hype? new chems for the coming year? I don't think these issues or politics will be a problem. Farm Bureau in general does a lot with commodity farmers. MOFGA is my style. I don't think we'll see large scale blueberry growers there but it's entirely possible. The areas included cover a lot of small, diversified organic farms.

Martha and her granddaughter came to market in Calais last year. She spent a couple of hours talking with all of us, taking pictures and wrote a story for The Maine Farmer. I haven't seen it yet so I'm hoping she brings it with her.

I understand monsanto and the farm bureau have many joint adventures mostly the funding from monsanto to the bureaus for either scholarships or research type scholarships, For me what I interpet ( which I hope is wrong) is Monsanto in effect is getting the bureau to sort say yeah we are 100% supportive of what monsanto is all about. It just gets confusing when the corp world and politics seem to be more a revolving door.

But thank you for speaking about Martha and giving me some insight, should be more interesting now!

I will definitely be at the meeting tonight. My daughter is coming with me. The location has made several people I spoke with over the weekend unsure about coming. I hope the turn out is good.

Well, as you know, I didnt make it. My husband came home from work and I forgot. I wish I would have remembered!
Please give details! thanks
Sue

All in all, it was good. I'm still not positive about joining Farm Bureau but probably will. The Washington Hancock bureau has an organic board. I had been under the impression that Farm Bureau did not support organic growers so this was a nice surprise. We're meeting again the second Tuesday of May, 7 p.m. I think it's going to be at Unobskey School on Main Street. I'll be going.

thanks for the new date, Robin. Any new word on blueberry farming and contol methods at the last meeting?

None, but I heard about an organic blueberry grower in Washington county. I'm going to track the person down.

Curious how last year while "no applications were needed" and crops were reported at being very poor and most did not even harvest. Fortunately there was such a glutton the year before that there was ample storage in the freezers.

Robin how were the blueberries looking last year in your
area.

They were terrible. My oldest daughter raked close to home for a couple of summers. My youngest wanted to rake last year but there were no berries to rake. I bought two boxes right out of the field and was disappointed with the berries. They were small and not very tasty. It was cold and damp when the bees should have been pollinating so the season got off to a bad start here.

Do you keep bees or depend on the wild ones? SOme one told me there is no such thing as "wild Bees" in Maine anymore...have you ever heard that?

The berries in our immediate area looked awesome, I was just curious. About 20 bee hives were placed in the fields and an electric fence once the bears had knocked the hives around.( Wish I could have sat in my car from a distance to see that happen!)

I don't have enough berries to bring in bees, but would if I had a barren.

I haven't heard there aren't any wild bees. That's something I've wondered about occasionally. I'd love to find a wild hive. There are honey bees here. Maybe they're escapees? That doesn't sound right though.

Yesterday morning there was a big fat bumblebee in the greenhouse. He was bright orange with pollen. He was kind of sluggish from an encounter with a fan. I put him out and then forgot to look to see if he'd flown.