Maine Sporting Camps

High-security Aroostook farm advances tater technology

MASARDIS, Maine — There’s not a lot along this stretch of Route 11 but logging operations, the occasional moose, some sporting camps and one or two tiny towns.

Masardis itself is well out of the way, and on its own outskirts is an oddity of sorts — a potato farm. And while potato farms aren’t exactly rare in Aroostook County, this one is set apart from others by barbed-wire-topped chain-link fences and surveillance cameras that secure access to the fields. Inside the buildings are high-tech laboratories and one of only a few hydroponic systems used to grow seed potatoes in North America.

The 900-acre Porter Seed Farm has been tucked away in this corner of Maine for 65 years, and more than 85 percent of potatoes grown in the state start here. The farm grows roughly 80 varieties of potato for Maine’s largest agriculture sector, providing seed that has been raised in an environment to minimize any chance of pest or disease.

“It’s an integral part of the infrastructure that makes the industry stable,” said Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board, an industry-led board created by the Legislature in 1986.

The farm provides seed potatoes to other seed growers in Maine and, increasingly, in other states. Having an in-state source reduces transportation and other costs to growers and also reduces the risk of introducing a pest or disease carried in on seed potatoes from another state.

The potato industry remains an integral part of the Maine economy. With 55,200 acres in production, Maine is the sixth-largest grower of potatoes in the United States. It includes more than 500 businesses, generating nearly $300 million in annual sales, employing over 2,600 people and providing over $112 million in income to Maine residents, according to a 2003 study commissioned by the MPB.

The Porter Seed Farm was run directly by the Maine Department of Agriculture until Jan. 1, 2010, when the state turned management over to the Maine Potato Board.

The move was made to improve management of the farm and to move toward operating it as a sustainable business without funding from the general fund. Flannery said the farm has an operating budget of $500,000 a year. Most of that is covered by the seed it sells to other seed growers — and 20 percent of the potatoes produced in Maine are for seed.

But the farm needs $160,000 from the state to cover operations. That’s down by about $100,000 from when it was run by the Department of Agriculture, said Flannery.

Voices On the Wind: Voices Protecting Bowers Mountain

World-wide, citizens are embroiled in battles to protect their homes, their quality of life, their health and their finances-- all at risk due to the proliferation of grid-scale wind energy facilities. On VOW I will share my perspectives, as well as those of other citizens who've stepped forward to 'have a say' in their attempt to shed light on 'wind'. Please exercise your right to free speech and join me on Voices on the Wind. Partnership for the Preservation of the Downeast Lakes Watershed (PPDLW) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the long-term preservation of Maine's Downeast Lakes Watershed through conservation, environmental action and opposition to inappropriate industrial or commercial development. We are currently devoting all our efforts to stopping an industrial wind project in Carroll and Kossuth being planned by Champlain Wind LLC (First Wind). The project, known as Bowers Mountain, will permanently damage the significant recreational economy of the Downeast Lakes watershed. It will threaten the jobs of many guides and the future of many sporting camps. Today we are joined by the Maine Professional Guides Association and the Maine Sporting Camp Association to voice our opposition to land-based wind projects like Bowers Mountain. We ask Governor-Elect LePage to place a moratorium on grid scale industrial wind projects until scientific cost-benefit studies of the projects currently online can be completed. In addition, we ask that the legislature repeal the Expedited Wind Permitting Law (LD 2283) because it fast-tracks the destruction of Maine’s scenic character and derails the recreational economy that depends on it. We are not against renewable energy, nor are we opposed to wind-generated energy when it is sited intelligently. When industrial wind runs up against the Quality of Place that is Maine’s stated brand, none of us can afford to remain silent. Since the Bowers/Dill ridgeline rises 800’ above the level of the surrounding lakes, these turbines will be more than half again as tall as the ridgeline. They will tower over the entire Downeast Lakes region and become a permanent scar on the horizon both day and night, affecting the greatest concentration of Class 1A and 1B lakes in the State (LURC’s Wildlands Lake Assessment). The Maine Professional Guides Association urges the State of Maine to recognize and address the adverse economic impact that industrial scale wind farms can cause to Maine’s guides.

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