Everything flows downstream no matter where you put it.

Yes in as much as I "boycott" chains in general. But if I had to choose between Chick-fil-A and something else I'd definitely go with a place whose ownership isn't trying to make life hell for some of my friends and family.

Depending on where you are, the Merrymeeting Food Council has a farm skills training program, but it requires 40 hours a week. Plenty of farms will happily take volunteers, though, often in exchange for produce. Get to know the farms closest to you and start there.

Not always topographically possible, but I get where you're coming from. The main issue in rushing to develop is that developers don't consider the environmental effects of what they're doing. Hence, Brunswick's current moratorium on development.

Many people who would like to farm are locked out because of rising land costs and development. If we want to continue to eat, we need to work on regionalizing food supplies. This is part of the discussion around the next farm bill.

You absolutely can farm on three acres. Not all farms are huge mechanized operations. If it's good soil (which we don't have a lot of up here) then it should be protected. Though in North Yarmouth, I have a feeling it's more of a property value issue than a land management one. Personally I believe in tax hikes on second and seasonal homes (excluding camps that aren't suited for year round habitation). There is a LOT of housing that isn't being fully utilized and is just serving as investment.

No, Johnny's doesn't sell plants, but they are a great company and source for locally-adapted seeds.

What region are you in? Many local farms (the one I work for included) sell seedlings in spring for customers to plant. They may be a little more expensive than going to a hardware garden center, but they'll be healthier and more locally adapted, with the money you spend going directly to locals instead of a huge corporation. Check out farmer's markets near you, or search for farms in your area and see if any of them do pre-orders.

The Civil War began and ended in Brunswick, at least that's what the local school system taught us.

I took a job on a local veggie farm when the pandemic first started causing supply chain problems in grocery stores. The local food community in many parts of the state is robust! Anything you can do to get involved with and invest in local producers is great. You don't have to do everything yourself, but doing things like planning gardens with your neighbors so you can trade and care for each other is good materially and for your collective mental health, and everything we do to keep things as local as possible breeds resilience.

Honey is used not just because it was available before other sugar syrups, but because it's naturally antimicrobial. That and the sugar content is why it doesn't go bad.

Lmao I gave up on trying to find an existing home and was going to build, had a perfect piece of land picked out and it got swooped, likely by a developer who also grabbed everything else that was within my range in the area. It's literally impossible to do anything. If I didn't live with family I couldn't even afford rent in the area.

I'd argue it's less like eating crickets (which are pretty tasty!) and more like going all in on monocultured lab "meats" instead of scaling down actual meat production to smaller, sustainable methods. But I'm a worker on a small farm, so I have a lot of time invested in that debate. Anyway, I think we're in agreement here. I'm also from Brunswick, where developers have been reined in lately from completely destroying the bay, so I am definitely biased.

Yup. I hate watching more crappy blocky "affordable housing" developments being built recklessly when plenty of homes sit as vacant vacation/investment property. If the legislature could sort its wording out to exclude seasonal camps that aren't suitable as is for year round residency, then maybe we could get a tax hike through and start to alleviate the problem.