Food for Maine's Future, The Healthy Schools Initiative, The Good Life Center at Forest Farm, Unity College Garden Club, and Unity Barn Raisers are proud to present the 2nd annual Local and Sustainable Food Conference: Creating Change in Your Community; and Local Foods Dinner at the Unity Performing Arts Center in Unity, an all day event starting at 10am on March 31st.

The conference is an all day open-house style event featuring information tables by groups working on food issues in Maine, local food, speakers, forums, and workshops geared toward creating local solutions to our food; followed by a local foods dinner at 6pm that will feature the bounty of Maine. This dinner is a celebration of Maine food and Maine's food producers and will consist (almost) entirely of Maine food. Guests can expect a fun and delicious time, while supporting and building a culture of food that respects the people, the animals, the land, and the waterways that keep us fed and nourished.The evening will conclude with local musicians and entertainment beginning at 8pm.

The goal for the event is to help build relationships between local growers, producers, and eaters, which is all of us.

Protect Maine Farmers, a campaign of Food For Maine's Future has introduced legislation (LD1650) this session aimed at protecting all of Maine's farmers from the negative effects of genetic trespass. Genetic trespass occurs when a patent-protected transgenic organism cross-pollinates with or otherwise contaminates a non-transgenic organism.

Transgenic Crop Contamination

Transgenic crops, such as corn, soybeans and canola grown in Maine have the potential to contaminate their conventional and organic counterparts in a number of ways. Wind pollinated crops, such as corn, and insect pollinated crops, such as canola, run the highest risks for contamination. Conventional and organic varieties of these crops can be cross-pollinated by transgenic varieties, resulting in the offspring, or seeds of these plants, containing the transgenes. Contamination can also occur in the handling, harvesting and processing of these crops so that transgenic varieties become mixed with conventional or organic varieties. Additionally, volunteers, or seeds that remain in the field and germinate the next year, have the potential to contaminate a field that goes from being planted in transgenic crops one year, to conventional the next.

When this contamination does occur, it has the potential to be damaging to farmers. Farmers whose conventional or organic crops are contaminated with transgenes face the potential for lost markets, reduced consumer confidence, negative impacts on herd and soil health, and the loss of beneficial insects and soil microrganisms. Additionally, widespread contamination reduces farmers choices in variety selection as more and more seed producers around the country have their lines contaminated with transgenic lines.

Additionally, if a farmer ends up with transgenic crops on their property, they run the risk of legal liability for patent infringement. If the farmer has grown transgenics in the past, and signed a technology use agreement or TUA with the seed manufacturer or patent holder, they have agreed to allow that seed company access to their financial and crop records. The seed company can indefinitely claim the right to enter onto that farmers land, test for the presence of unlicensed patent-protected material, and subsequently sue for damages due to stolen intellectual property.

Conversely, if the farmer has not grown transgenic crops, while they may not be in violation of their contract, they do face potential litigation for the adventitious presence of patented material. While no cases of the latter have yet been publicized, the aggressive tactics of the seed companies in pursuing over 90 lawsuits against farmers who have grown transgenics indicates a low threshold of tolerance on the seed companies part, and the potential for future litigation based on the unwanted presence of the patented material on farmers lands who have not grown transgenic crops. Growers of transgenic crops also face potential legal liability for contamination that occurs on neighboring farms due to the presence of transgenics on their farm. All these situations that place farmers in legal or financial jeopardy are precisely what Protect Maine Farmers is working to circumvent.

The Legislative Campaign

LR 1873, An Act to Ensure the Longterm Viability of Traditional Farming in Maine, offers a number of provisions for protecting Maine's farmers from tramsgenic contamination, and the negative legal and financial ramifications of that contamination. The five provisions of this bill are designed to work together to offer additional security to all farmers, and reduce the risks of contamination.

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

2007 Maine Agriculture Trade Show January 9-11, 2007 Augusta Civic Center

We invite you to join us at the 2007 Maine Agriculture Trade Show. GE Free Maine/Maine Center for Food Sovereignty – now Food for Maine's Future – will be sponsoring a full slate of workshops, discussions, listening sessions, and trainings. All events will take place in the Waldo Room.

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 Waldo Room

9:00 AM -- Farmer Advocacy Training. Bill Wenzel, National Family Farm Coalition (Pre-Reg Required)

10:00 AM -- Creating Food Independence for Maine. Bob St Peter, Food for Maine's Future/Good Life Center

11:00 AM -- The Healthy Schools Initiative - School Gardens, Farm to Schools, Healthy School Lunches and Sustainable Ag in the Classroom - An open discussion on initiatives underway in Maine Schools. Terra Connors-Marks, Linda Hartkopf , Hart-to-Hart Farm.

1:00 PM -- Genetic Trespass - Trouble Blowing in the Wind? What's at stake for Maine farmers. Logan Perkins, Protect Maine Farmers and Bill Wenzel, National Family Farm Coalitions

1:30 PM -- “More than I bargained for” - An Indiana farmer decides to use Roundup Ready crops and ends up in court. Indiana Farmer Troy Roush (tentative)

2:00 PM Farmer Listening Session: if you're a farmer and concerned and have an opinion on genetically engineered crops and ideas on how to address cross pollination issues this is the chance to let your voice be heard.

3:00 PM Resolutions and Ordinance - Local Solutions for Promoting GE-Free Agriculture and Defining Your Own Food System. Kai George, Tim Libby and Robert Fish, Food for Maine's Future

4:00 PM Biofuels - A Green Opportunity or False Promise? Logan Perkins and Tim Libby, Food for Maine's Future.

Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 Waldo Room

9:00 AM -- Genetically modified and Pharmaceutical crops: similarities, differences and risk. John Jemison, University of Maine Extension

10:00 AM -- Farmer Advocacy Training. Bill Wenzel, National Family Farm Coalition (Pre-Reg Required)

11:00 AM -- On the horizon - Genetically Engineered Grass and Trees. Logan Perkins and Robert Fish, Food for Maine's Future

12:00 PM -- Biofuels - A Green Opportunity or False Promise? Logan Perkins and Tim Libby, Food for Maine's Future.

1:00 PM -- Resolutions and Ordinance - Local Solutions for Promoting GE-Free Agriculture and Defining Your Own Food System. Tim Libby and Robert Fish, Food for Maine's Future

2:00 PM -- “More than I bargained for” - An Indiana farmer decides to use Roundup Ready crops and ends up in court. Indiana Farmer Troy Roush (tentative)

2:30 PM -- Farmer Listening Session: if you're a farmer and concerned and have an opinion on genetically engineered crops and ideas on how to address cross pollination issues this is the chance to let your voice be heard.

3:30 PM -- Video Showing - The Future of Food—an-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade

5:30 -- Video Showing: Unnatural Selection: a disturbing exposés on experiments involving genetically engineered animals, from monstrously deformed pigs to fast-growing GE salmon.

Thursday, January 11th, 2007 Waldo Room

9:00 AM -- “ More than I bargained for” - An Indiana farmer decides to use Roundup Ready crops and ends up in court. Indiana Farmer Troy Roush (tentative)

9:30 AM -- Genetic Trespass - Trouble Blowing in the Wind? What's at stake for Maine farmers

10:00 AM -- Farmer Listening Session: if you're a farmer and concerned and have an opinion on genetically engineered crops and ideas on how to address cross pollination issues this is the chance to let your voice be heard.

11:00 AM -- The Healthy Schools Initiative - Identifying Agribusiness Influence in the Classroom and Developing Sustainable Alternatives

12:00 PM --- Biofuels - A Green Opportunity or False Promise? Logan Perkins and Tim Libby, Food for Maine's Future

1:00 PM -- On the horizon - Genetically Engineered Grass and Trees. Logan Perkins and Rob Fish, Food for Maine's Future.

1:30 PM -- Resolutions and Ordinance - Local Solutions for Promoting GE-Free Agriculture and Defining Your Own Food System. Tim Libby and Robert Fish, Food for Maine's Future.

2:30 PM -- Video Showing: Unnatural Selection: a disturbing exposés on experiments involving genetically engineered animals, from monstrously deformed pigs to fast-growing GE salmon.

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Please email info@protectmainefarmers.org or call 207-692-2571 or 1-888-874-3593 for more information or to register.

GE FREE MAINE PRESENTS: A SILENT FOREST -- The Growing Threat of Genetically Modified Trees, Tuesday, Dec 5 6:00 Organic and Otherwize, Jay, ME

JAY: Tuesday Dec. 5 at 6:00 p.m. at Organic and Otherwize on Main St in Jay there will be a screening and discussion of the film A SILENT FOREST: The Growing Threat of Genetically Engineered Trees.

Genetically engineered trees are quietly sprouting up across the country. Narrated by Dr. David Suzuki, an award-winning scientist and environmentalist, and host of NPR's The Nature of Things, A Silent Forest exposes the threats posed by the introduction of genetically engineered trees into our environment. The film breaks down complex scientific concepts while detailing the dangerous impacts genetically engineered trees will have on human health, native forests, forest-dwelling indigenous peoples, and wildlife. Rob Fish, an organizer with GE Free Maine and a founder of the Maine Center for Food Sovereignty will lead a discussion following the film.

Are you concerned about Waldo County? The job market? Consumer options? Our children and youth? The aging population? What issues do you think are a top priority for your community?

Here is a great opportunity to be involved with your community, meet your neighbors, and eat delicious local food!

Residents of Burnham, Freedom, Knox, Montville,Thorndike, Troy and Unity are invited to attend a community meal and dialogue on Saturday. This event is one in a series throughout Waldo County, organized by the Waldo County Healthy Communities Coalition; this particular event is partnered with the Unity Barn Raisers in honor of their 10 year anniversary.

Come enjoy a meal of local food provided by the Unity Barn Raisers and discuss your communities strengths and challenges, and brainstorm on ways to improve quality of life throughout your community.

Join us, and let your voice be heard!

If you wish to attend, please RSVP with the Unity Barn Raisers by calling 207-984-9005 or emailing ubr@uninets.net

By Laurie David

November 26, 2006

The teachers had a different idea: Thanks but no thanks, they said.

Come out and meet others concerned with food sovereignty, have a great time and donate your time to a great cause! Camp for the weekend and enjoy potluck and/or communal meals. Floor space will also be available. Childcare is also possible with advanced notice!

Read about the Center in the Portland Phoenix

We envision this Center, when completed, as a space frequently open to the larger community in which individuals will freely share ideas and materials, study in our lending library, use our computers, and attend talks, video screenings, workshops, meetings and other events. The Center will also provide office space for groups sharing the goal of developing strategies to taking action to promote food sovereignty in Maine and garden space to compliment educational efforts to the benefit of Maine's farmers and consumers.

The Center is being hosted on a parcel of land located on Route 220 in Thorndike! Sign up and we'll send you directions!

For more information, questions, or to request camping or childcare contact Meg or call 568-3019