Donate to WERU Today!Host: Holli Cederholm
Editor: Clare Boland
Common Ground Radio is an hour-long discussion of local food and organic agriculture with people here in the state of Maine and beyond.
This month:
In this episode of Common Ground Radio, we discuss PFAS “forever chemical” contamination on farms and actions that are being taken on the state and federal level to protect farmers and eaters, including the recent lawsuit filed against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calling for regulation of a primary source of PFAS contamination — sewage sludge applied to farmland as fertilizer — under the Clean Water Act. Due to the practice of land-applying sludge containing PFAS, farmers here in Maine and across the country have been unknowingly contaminating their land, and consequently the food we eat. Sarah Alexander, MOFGA’s executive director, and Laura Dumais, staff counsel with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, talk about ways to mitigate contamination and reduce public health risks.
List of subjects:
-PFAS “forever chemicals”
-PFAS contamination on farmland
-PFAS in sewage sludge
-Impact of PFAS contamination on farmers
-PFAS legislation in Maine and at the federal level
-Lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Guest/s:
Sarah Alexander, executive director of MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association)
Laura Dumais, staff counsel with PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility)
FMI:
- About PFAS — mofga.org/pfas
- Take action on PFAS — mofga.org/advocacy/take-action-on-pfas
- “Lawsuit to Prevent PFAS in Biosolid Fertilizer Expands” — mofga.org/news/epa-lawsuit
- Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility — peer.org
- PEER petition to tell EPA to get PFAS out of pesticides — peer.org/petition-tell-epa-to-get-pfas-out-of-pesticides
- PEER petition to save America’s farms from toxic contamination — peer.org/petition-save-americas-farms-from-toxic-contamination
About the hosts:
Holli Cederholm has been involved in organic agriculture since 2005 when she first apprenticed on a small farm. She has worked on organic farms in Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Scotland and Italy and, in 2010, founded a small farm focused on celebrating open-pollinated and heirloom vegetables. As the former manager of a national nonprofit dedicated to organic seed growers, she authored a peer-reviewed handbook on GMO avoidance strategies for seed growers. Holli has also been a steward at Forest Farm, the iconic homestead of “The Good Life” authors Helen and Scott Nearing; a host of “The Farm Report” on Heritage Radio Network; and a lo0ng-time contributor for The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, which she now edits in her role as content creator and editor at MOFGA.
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