Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

March 17

Feeding the future will take all kinds of farmers

Regarding Amanda Beal\'s critical report on the \"Sustainability Mini-Conference\" at the Agricultural Trade Show in Augusta (\"Bring organic and conventional farmers together on common interests,\" Jan. 20): I was at the presentation and found it interesting and informative.

The speakers were all intelligent, interesting and well-informed. The gist of the \"Convergence = Sustainability\" program was that no one \"type\" of agriculture will feed the world in 2040 and the best of all technologies and methods will be needed.

I\'m not sure whether Amanda Beal was not paying attention, was put off by some of the myth-busting of her preconceptions, or if her closed-mindedness was the reason for her negative article.

I\'ve worked organic, low-input and high-input agriculture in several states, three countries on two continents over the last 35 years, and I gleaned much from the convergence meeting. The insightful look at the past, present and possible future of food production was a well-spent five hours. Thank you to the Maine Farm Bureau and the Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources.

Cary Nash

Camden