I wrote about farms like this one when I did a story about #UnityMaine, the home of the #CommonGroundFair -- a celebration of #OrganicFarming in #Maine. It makes me so sad to see them having to go out of business because #MaineDEP and #EPAFail led to #sludge being marketed as "fertilizer".

‘I don’t know how we’ll survive’: the #farmers facing ruin in #Maine’s ‘forever chemicals’ crisis

Maine faces a crisis from #PFAS-contaminated produce, which is causing farms to close and farmers to face the loss of their livelihoods

by Tom Perkins, 22 Mar 2022 06.05 EDT

"Songbird Farm’s 17 acres (7 hectares) hold sandy loam fields, three greenhouses and cutover woods that comprise an idyllic setting near Maine’s central coast. The small organic operation carved out a niche growing heirloom grains, tomatoes, sweet garlic, cantaloupe and other products that were sold to organic food stores or as part of a community-supported agriculture program, where people pay to receive boxes of locally grown produce.

Farmers Johanna Davis and Adam Nordell bought Songbird in 2014. By 2021 the young family with their three-year-old son were hitting their stride, Nordell said.

"But disaster struck in December. The couple learned the farm’s previous owner had decades earlier used PFAS-tainted sewage sludge, or '#biosolids', as fertilizer on Songbird’s fields. Testing revealed their soil, drinking #water, irrigation water, #crops, chickens and #blood were #contaminated with high levels of the #ToxicChemicals.

"The couple quickly recalled products, alerted customers, suspended their operation and have been left deeply fearful for their financial and physical wellbeing.

"'This has flipped everything about our lives on its head,' Nordell said. 'We haven’t done a blood test on our kid yet and that’s the most terrifying part. It’s fucking devastating.'"

Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/22/i-dont-know-how-well-survive-the-farmers-facing-ruin-in-americas-forever-chemicals-crisis

#EPA #InformedConsent #PFOS #WaterIsLife #ToxicWaste #FoodProduction