Meeting TUESDAY, January 7th at the Ag Trade Show

Our next meeting will be held on the first day of the Maine Agricultural Trade Show at the Augusta Civic Center on TUESDAY, January 7th between 10am and noon.

We have invited representatives from the Department of Agriculture Quality Assurance division to attend and explain what is involved in becoming a licensed dairy processor in the state of Maine — the cost, the requirements, and the benefits of licensing. Many licensed cheese makers will also be on hand to answer questions about Maine cheese, the Guild, and the best way to learn about cheese making.

There will be a brief business meeting at the beginning, followed by opening the floor up to any interested participants who have questions for the Department of Agriculture or Guild members attending.

I look forward to seeing you there.

–Eric Rector
President, Maine Cheese Guild

Ag Day At the Legislature 2009

ag_day_2009

Above you can see me telling Governor Baldacci about how Maine Cheese is such a great dairy success story!

Along with about thirty ag focused groups, I spent the morning of March 31 offering samples of Maine cheese (thanks to State of Maine Cheese Co., and Pineland Farms) to state house workers and legislators (in between sessions) and asking them if they’d like to know more about Maine cheese. Most of the did, and most of them very much liked the samples of the cheese.

For the legislators, I handed them one of the color Guild brochures and pointed out that when we printed the brochure two years ago there were 20 licensed cheese makers in Maine (as it states in the first paragraph of the brochure), but that currently there are 37 licensed cheese makers, which shows how many new folks are stepping up and putting more Maine milk to good use.
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