Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – Members of the Maine Potato Board were briefed last Wednesday on the status of a number of legislative bills that could impact the industry.
Among the bills discussed included:
• LD 1954 – An Act to Amend the Potato Cull Pile Law. Sponsored by Rep. Jackie Lundeen (D-Mars Hill), the bill strengthens the laws pertaining to potato cull piles and establishes requirements for the management of potato cull piles. The bill expands responsibility for disposal and management beyond landowners to lessees and other persons responsible for the potatoes. If approved, the bill would authorize the Commissioner of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources to establish best management practices for managing potato culls and potato cull piles.
The Maine Potato Board voted to support the bill.
• LD 1960 – An Act Regarding Axle Weight on Tri-Axle Farm Trucks. This bill expands the axle tolerance limit for tri-axle farm trucks from 54,000 pounds to 64,000 pounds. The bill makes no changes to the gross weight limit and is only for tri-axle trucks with farm registration.
Directors voted to support LD 1960.
• LD 1992 – An Act to Amend the Laws Governing Agricultural and Bargaining. Sponsored by Sen. John Martin (D-Eagle Lake), this bill amends the laws governing agricultural marketing and bargaining by amending the definition of “handler” to define that term as it pertains to potatoes. The bill also amends the definitions of “agent” and “broker” to exclude from those definitions associations that are cooperative associations of agricultural producers.
An Agricultural Bargaining Council bill, the consensus among the MPB was that – if asked – the Maine Potato Board would help create language that would be agreeable to both parties.
• LD 2056 – An Act to Conserve Gasoline and Preserve Clean Air. This bill sets limits on idling of motor vehicles. It provides that a person who owns a location where a diesel-powered commercial motor vehicle loads or unloads may not cause such a vehicle to idle for a period longer than 30 minutes while waiting to load or unload at that location.
The bill provides that an owner or operator of a diesel-powered commercial motor vehicle may not cause or permit such a vehicle to idle for more than five minutes in any 60-minute period, subject to certain exemptions, such as while waiting to load or unload a vehicle. It provides that an owner or operator of a gasoline-powered vehicle, except a private passenger vehicle, may not cause or permit such a vehicle to idle for more than five minutes in any 60-minute period, subject to certain exceptions.
The legislation would also require a warning to be issued for a first violation, and a fine to be adjudged for a subsequent violation.
Directors voted to oppose the bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Jon Hinck (D-Portland).
“It sounds great,” said Timothy Hobbs, director of development/grower relations, “… clean air and conserving gas. That’s a wonderful thing, but in the middle of winter time, the way diesel fuel gels up, it just isn’t practical up here.”
• LD 2112 – An Act to Increase the Time Period for Motor Vehicle Inspections to 2 Years. This bill, among other things, would change the annual partial inspection requirement for farm trucks, fish trucks and woods trailers to a biennial requirement.
The Maine Potato Board decided to watch the bill, and would likely support it.
At the Jan. 16 board meeting, directors were also notified about Gov. John E. Baldacci’s intent to merge the Departments of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, Conservation, Inland Fisheries Wildlife, and Marine Resources.
“It is taken as a given today that the well-being of Maine citizens and their future economic security is inextricably linked to the quality of the state’s natural resources,” said Ag Commissioner Seth Bradstreet in a memo. “Our abundant forests, fisheries, productive farms, diverse wildlife, countless recreational opportunities, and many other natural resources constitute an endowment and heritage that we all treasure and depend upon.
“Yet these resources are under challenge and threat from many directions. At the present time, four agencies are charged with management responsibility for safeguarding Maine’s natural heritage and for promoting its sustainable use,” Bradstreet wrote. “We have been increasingly concerned that having four separate resource management agencies that are charged with natural resource stewardship and enhancement is not sustainable. These agencies are not thriving in their current organizational structure and are losing ground as the costs of employee health insurance, energy and other infrastructure costs increase. In short, the manner in which we organized our natural resource agencies 30 years ago will not meet the needs of Maine’s future.”
For this reason, in the governor’s supplemental budget, there is a directive that the four agencies merge into not more than two natural resource departments. The legislation charges the four agencies, along with the State Planning Office and Department of Finance and Administration Services, staffed with consulting assistance to work with state officials to develop reorganization plan options and to submit a plan for reorganization of their departments and implementing legislation by Jan. 1, 2009.
“Our goal must be to enhance services provided to natural resource-based businesses and industries and to strengthen our efforts in outdoor recreation, natural resource management, education, promotion and research,” wrote Bradstreet. “We must commit ourselves to finding new ways to integrate scientific, land management, enforcement and outreach promotion and educational functions.”
Hobbs said the board’s position on the proposed reorganization of the natural resource agencies is they want to be part of the discussion process.
“We’re open to discussion,” said Hobbs. “We don’t want to lose any of the services that we pay for through the Department of Agriculture. We want to make sure agriculture, in general, doesn’t lose any ground or footing through that process. The only thing that we will go along with is an agency that’s still a Department of Agriculture with components of, for example, the forest industry or aquaculture being folded into Agriculture, not the other way around.
“We want our cabinet position to be an agricultural cabinet position, not a natural resources cabinet position,” he said.
In other MPB news, it was announced that Alan Moir of Woodland has been named 2007 Young Farmer of the Year.
A full-time grower for 16 years, Alan Moir and his family grow 700 acres of potatoes along with 700 acres of rotation crops, broccoli, and grain crops. Moir attributes his family’s success to continuing to expand acreage, increasing contracted potatoes, and keeping up with the use of new technology available to today’s farm operations. Moir works with his father and two brothers as together they operate Moir Farms.
Moir has increased acreage by approximately 400 acres over the last five years. In addition, the family put in a man-made pond as a water source for irrigation, with a center pivot in place and readily available when needed. They also removed line fences to facilitate expansion and better utilize farmland.
Moir, his wife, Stacy, 10-year-old son, Corey, and 6-year-old daughter, Amber, live in Woodland.
“Alan and his family have continued to expand acreage and increase contracts in a competitive marketplace,” said Hobbs. “Moir Farms keeps a constant focus on top quality and efficiency. Alan and his family are a credit to the industry.”
Moir will receive his Young Farmer of the Year award March 21 at the Maine Potato Board’s annual dinner and meeting.
