Maine Greenhouse and Ag Infrastructure Seminars 9/8 & 9/10

ANNOUNCEMENT: CALLING GREENHOUSE GROWERS AND FARM SERVICE PROVIDERS

The Maine Sustainable Agriculture Society (ME SAS) is hosting two educational seminars with statewide significance for year round and season extension systems on small and mid-sized commercial Maine farms. The events will be delivered via ZOOM on two dates, Tuesday September 8th at 9:00am, OR Thursday September 10 at 4:30pm; the two times are scheduled to make the event accessible to farmers and farm service providers and others with varying schedules and availability. Pre-registration is required; registered participants will receive a confirmation e-mail with the ZOOM link a week in advance of the events. To register please visit www.mesas.org/signup before September 2nd to receive priority access.

The sessions are co-sponsored by the Hancock County and Central Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District Offices and the Maine Organic Farmer's and Gardener's Association.

The program will highlight ME SAS' recent report on successes and lessons of from year round agriculture research and demonstrations in Maine, and will discuss six priority areas all greenhouse and year round growers should consider for their infrastructure.

For more detail or questions contact ME SAS' Greenhouse and Agriculture Infrastructure Program at (207)570 - 8760 or e-mail infrastructure@mesas.org. Link to SYRA Program Final Report ,session detail, and agenda below:

Session details:

Link to Agenda

The seminars, planned for 1.5 hours, are aimed at intermediate and advanced season extension professionals, however, greenhorns, season extension enthusiasts, greenhouse designers and experts, and renewable heat, energy and ventilation professionals are encouraged to attend. In addition, farmers and service providers directly or peripherally involved with the "SYRA research and demonstration" program that ran from 2016 - 2019 are strongly encouraged to attend.

To register for upcoming seminars sign up at www.mesas.org/register and check the box indicating your interested in MESAS Greenhouse and Infrastructure Program.

Starting this fall, in partnership with UMaine Systems Schools, ME SAS is releasing a series of fact sheets that highlight key areas that are currently a marriage of traditional and novel technologies being used to improve greenhouse growing for Maine producers. Farmers and designers interested in helping Maine farms lower energy, heating and utility costs, reduce purchased inputs and improve production systems should consider attending.

In May, ME SAS released its final report on four years of research and demonstrations of a selection high tech infrastructure options that aim to improve energy and heating efficiency, framing and paneling, and cropping options for growing Maine's season extension and year round markets. The project was dubbed SYRA or Sustainable Year Round Ag, and worked with Maine farmers test novel approaches for greenhouse design that may help Maine's food system scale up its season extension offerings. The original research program focused on food and cut bouquet flowers but has significant implications for Maine's nurseries, animal agriculture, as well as the emerging cannabis industry and controlled climate agriculture, aquaculture and aquaponics. The full report is available here.

The seminars are the first of a series ME SAS' public educational programs from the recently announced Maine Agriculture Infrastructure and Greenhouse Improvement Program; a follow up to the SYRA Program.

The Maine Sustainable Agriculture Society is a 501c3 non-profit organization, founded by 5th Generation Family farmer Stew Smith - current board president - and is overseen by a Maine farmer-led Board of Directors.