SUN JOURNAL • June 2, 2024
The 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture shows there are fewer farms in Maine than just five years ago, fewer acres available to be farmed and fewer farmers. Farms are a driver of the economy in Maine, worth just under $1 billion. Yet, there were 7,036 farms in 2022, down from 7,646 in 2017. Ninety-seven percent of the farms are small, family-owned. More than 82,000 acres of Maine farmland fell out of agricultural production within five years. Dairy farms have been particularly hard hit, with the number of dairy farms cut in half between 2010 and 2022. Key challenges facing the agriculture sector include an aging workforce, labor constraints and costs, high costs of production, lack of control over pricing for some commodities, climate change, PFAS, the cost of land and development issues.