Opinion: What Maine’s next generation of farms needs to succeed

SUN JOURNAL • September 6, 2026

The Lisbon greenhouse facility operated by Springworks Farm is headed to auction. Roughly 40 miles away, Vertical Harvest, a high-tech producer of indoor leafy greens in Westbrook, has faced significant delays and has yet to reach the commercial scale it originally envisioned. If Maine is going to support innovative agriculture with public resources, it should ask before a project moves forward: Is the operation ready to run? I’ve spent three decades in commercial horticulture. I served as general manager for Backyard Farms, the 40-acre tomato greenhouse range in Madison. A lesson I’ve learned throughout my career: operational readiness is fundamental to success. Operational readiness is having the people, systems and discipline to run a facility reliably from day one. ~ Ryan Douglas, Maine-based strategic advisor to cultivation businesses