Listen to the story HERE By Kathryn Carley April 20, 2023 Dairy processors and farmers throughout Maine are eligible for grants to help them improve their operations as part of a growing movement to keep locally produced milk in local communities. The Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center is offering $12 million in expansion grants to help farmers purchase new equipment, train employees […]
Listen to the story HERE
By Kathryn Carley
April 20, 2023
Dairy processors and farmers throughout Maine are eligible for grants to help them improve their operations as part of a growing movement to keep locally produced milk in local communities.
The Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center is offering $12 million in expansion grants to help farmers purchase new equipment, train employees or market their dairy products.
Jami Badershall, communications manager for the Maine Dairy and Nutrition Council, said it has always been important to Mainers to support their dairy producers.
“It’s benefiting all of us to keep that milk local and to keep the local farms going,” Badershall explained.
Larger processors can submit pre-applications for grants by May 11 while the application window for smaller dairy farms runs through August. There are roughly 176 dairy farms scattered throughout fifteen counties in Maine, generating more than $900 million in economic activity.
The American Rescue Plan Act allocated $4 billion to bring food prices down as well as make the American food system more resilient.
Badershall stressed Maine’s local dairy industry is integral to the state, providing thousands of jobs on and off the farm as well as fresh nutrition to consumers.
“Some people are often surprised that the milk that they are looking at on the grocery store shelf, it came from a farm not that far away within a day or two,” Badershall pointed out.
Badershall added consumer demand for locally produced dairy products as well as interest in the farmers themselves has increased, and many consumers are using social media to connect to these producers and learn more about the origins of their food.
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