Oxford County farmers seek to promote local foods

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3/13/05 Sun Journal, Regional Section

By Kerri Pepoy, Staff Writer

NORWAY - A group of Oxford County food growers is taking steps to get more local crops into the grocery bags of consumers.

The Oxford County Local Foods Network was formed last year and is a loosely organized group of about 15 farmers and farm-related businesses in Oxford County, Annette Marin, a noncertified organic farmer in Rumford, said Friday.

Healthy Oxford Hills, Oxford County Cooperative Extension, Maine Small Business Development Center, and the University of Maine Department of Resource Economics and Policy are lending expertise and technical assistance to the network.

Marin said the network has several goals to promote local foods and create new markets, including publishing a local foods directory and sponsoring a "Fresh Food Feast Expo" at harvest time where farmers can exhibit and retail their products.

Marin said the expo may be held in September or October, possibly at the Oxford County Fairgrounds on Pottle Road in Oxford. She and other network members also want to organize educational programs for the public at individual farms across the county.

But the first step is knowing who and where the farms are, which has been a difficult task, Marin said.

There is limited information available on Oxford County farms. According to the 2000 Census, there are 469 farms in the county, but computer searches and other information-gathering methods turn up little, Marin said.

A survey that Marin and other network members designed to gather information on what types of crops are grown in Oxford County was recently mailed to only 60 farms. "I'm missing 400 farms," she said.

Marin hopes farms and farm-related businesses will contact her by phone at 364-7085 or fill out the survey online at http://users.adelphia.net/~hile/Producersurvey.html.

The survey will compile information for publication in a new local foods directory. It asks farms and farm-related businesses, such as farmer's markets and machinery and feed suppliers, what they grow and sell.

"We want to find out what the market voids are and what we are not creating in this area," Marin said. "We really feel that new farmers in the area have no idea what is available to them, and the public has no idea what is available to them."

There is no charge to be listed in the directory. "We want to promote farms and farm businesses, and possibly restaurants that carry local foods. This is all about local foods," Marin said.

The network received some money to help fund its goals, including $1,000 from Maine Initiatives and $300 from the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments.

Marin said another future goal is helping food stamp recipients purchase local foods with Electronic Benefits System cards by installing more EBT machines at farms across Oxford County.

Most farms in Maine don't have the machines because they are expensive, so they can't sell their products to food stamp recipients who are not using paper food stamps but rather electronic cards. "What it has done is cut farmers completely out of the loop," she said.

Marin said the network will work with the state Department of Agriculture to hopefully buy more EBT machines in the future.

For More Information Contact:

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Tel: CompanyPhone Lauri Ackley or 207-364-3740 Annette Marin
FAX: CompanyFAX Lauri Ackley or 207-364-3740 Annette Marin
Internet: CompanyEmail

Want more Information?
Contact: President, Annette Marin @ 207-364-1080