Provided by Organic Consumers Fund
The council asks city staff to recommend amendments on how it would be enforced and how waivers would be granted in a timely fashion.
Read moreA group of state attorneys general just declared war on big polluters.
The group, representing 17 states, said it will pursue climate change litigation. Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands officially joined an ongoing investigation into potential fraud by ExxonMobil, and all the states committed to working together as “creatively, collaboratively, and aggressively” as possible to combat climate change.
AUGUSTA, Maine - The Maine House of Representatives has given initial approval to a proposal that would allow residents to vote on whether packages of foods produced from genetically modified organisms should be labeled.
Maine has a GMO labeling law on the books, but it doesn't kick in unless enough other states pass similar laws by 2018. Rep. Michelle Dunphy, an Old Town Democrat, wants voters to decide whether to repeal that trigger provision and mandate labeling now.
AUGUSTA — House lawmakers voted Tuesday to move forward with a proposed constitutional amendment declaring Mainers have a “right to food freedom,” a step that could increase tensions among local food producers, government regulators and the agribusiness industry.
The amendment contains declarations of Mainers’ “natural, inherent and unalienable right” to grow, acquire and consume food of their own choosing. Yet the lofty-sounding proposal stems from the growing debate in Maine and nationally over what some “local foods” advocates and small farmers view as over-regulation by the
Read moreAUGUSTA – Voters would have the chance to decide whether genetically modified foods should be labeled under a proposal from Rep. Michelle Dunphy.
“Mainers have a right to know what is in the food we feed our families,” said Dunphy, D-Old Town. “I feel it’s time to send this issue to the people of the state of Maine and let them decide.”
Read moreWas your salmon dinner grown in a lab, or out in nature? And what about those innocent-looking ears of corn in the produce aisle? How about the cans in your pantry? Maine’s Legislature is mulling an act that would require food companies to label genetically modified food — and for the consumer that would mean more food transparency here.
The bill, LD 991, would require
Read moreThe mass-produced carrots and peppers on most of our plates are tasteless and bland compared to their locally grown counterparts, and most of us don't even realize it. We have grown used to eating old produce shipped long distances by Sodexo, Aramark and Compass, the three major food service management corporations that control 90 percent of the national food service market.
Read moreIt turns out that what happens in my household is not atypical: My wife insists upon discarding products promptly upon reaching the date stamped on the packaging, against my arguments that such action is premature.
This common scene is actually part of a larger problem of food waste, according to Rep. Chellie Pingree of southern Maine. Pingree introduced the Food Recovery Act last week, the latest and perhaps most ambitious of her attempts to address the issue—a crusade she somewhat immodestly compares, wishfully, to the days of recycling.
Read moreCLARK COVE, WALPOLE — One farmer wore waders, the other was holding hundreds of 5-week-old seedlings in one hand. Their “tractor” was afloat. It was November and planting season at Maine Fresh Sea Farms was in full swing, in spite of a dungeon of fog that made the farm, a football-field-sized area of the Damariscotta River estuary, hard to see.
Seth Barker drove the boat while Sarah Redmond did the planting, which in the case of seaweed farming looks akin to casting on in knitting. That is, if instead of needles one used a thick hank of marine rope strung horizontally between
Read moreYORK, Maine — A chain of southern Maine hardware stores is being recognized by environmental groups Thursday for its decision to sell only organic garden products.
Eldredge Lumber & Hardware, which operates stores in Kittery, York and Portland, no longer sells any pesticides or weed-killer products containing synthetic chemicals. It's a trend which advocates hope will be copied elsewhere.
Eldredge Lumber & Hardware decided to make a change in its product line a while back.
"We made a decision two years ago to go away from synthetic pesticides and fertilizers
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