Why plan for growth and change, when it seems so much easier to simply react? When there is a distinct and shared vision for your community - when residents, businesses and local government anticipate a sustainable town with cohesive and thriving neighborhoods - you have the power to conserve your beautiful natural spaces, enhance your existing downtown or Main Street, enable rural areas to be productive and prosperous, and save money through efficient use of existing infrastructure. This is the dollars and sense of smart growth. Success is clearly visible in Maine, from the creation of a community-built senior housing complex and health center in Fort Fairfield to conservation easements creating Forever Farms to Rockland's revitalized downtown. Communities have options. We have the power to manage our own responses to growth and change. After all, “Planning is a process of choosing among those many options. If we do not choose to plan, then we choose to have others plan for us.” - Richard I. Winwood And in the end, this means that our children and their children will choose to make Maine home and our economy will provide the opportunities to do so. The Summit offers you a wonderful opportunity to be a part of the transformative change in Maine that we’ve seen these gatherings produce. We encourage you to consider the value of being actively involved in growing Maine’s economy and protecting the reasons we choose to live here.

1. www.mofga.org education@mofga.org

2. MOFGA’s Apprenticeship
Program connects people
wanting to learn organic farming
with experienced farmers willing
to share their expertise.

3. • In 2014 180 apprentices and 10 mentor
farmers participated in the program
• Since 2000 a total of 1,475 new farmers
have participated in the program
• Established in 1975 the Apprenticeship
Program has now been modeled in 7 other
states

4. MOFGA’s Journeyperson
Program provides hands-on
support, training, and
mentorship for people who
are serious about pursuing
careers in organic farming
in Maine.

5. Participants are awarded a 2-year package of support, including:
• Mentorship
• Technical Assistance
• Educational Stipend
• MOFGA Farm Beginnings© whole-farm planning curriculum
• Discounts with FEDCO & Johnny’s Selected Seeds
• Assistance for land access & land tenure issues through partnerships with
Maine Farmland Trust and Land For Good

6. Program Impacts
• Percentage of farmers at the Portland Farmers Market who
are current or past participants in MOFGA’s New Farmer
Programs: 49%
• Percentage of Community Supported Agriculture, (CSA)
Farms that are current or past participants in MOFGA’s New
Farmer Programs: 50%
• Annual Economic and community development value of
each new farm operation : $63,000
• Percentage of Journeyperson farms that are partly or wholly
woman-owned: 68%