Legislation aimed at providing lawmakers with a broader understanding of economic challenges facing farmers and producers in far-flung corners of the state has been approved by committee and will next head to the Senate floor.
Introduced as emergency legislation, LD1747, To Establish a Task Force to Examine Agricultural Issues, is sponsored by Sen. Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, who says the issues facing the state’s farmers need attention year-round.
“There were a lot of people in my area talking about logging and farming and this past fall I took a tour of Washington County and talked to the blueberry workers,” Jackson said. “I decided then and there we should have something to deal with agriculture issues not just when [the legislature] is in session.”
Jackson’s proposed legislation would create a 13-member task force made up of Senate and House members, representatives of the blueberry and forest products industries and appointees from the commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry and from the director of the Maine Bureau of General Services.
Once created, the task force would travel around to the most rural parts of the state hearing directly from those affected by barriers to economic growth.
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Allagash senator wants more attention on challenges of rural agriculture,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Julia Bayly, please follow this link to the BDN online.
