Stories
On a recent winter afternoon, a long line of brown Jersey cows lined up for feeding time, jostling for position. At the end of the railing, Blueberry snorted in anticipation. Today, her meal at the University of New Hampshire’s organic dairy farm was a standard mixture of hay and grain. But soon, she and her fellow dairy…
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Tucked away inside a trash facility in central Connecticut is a pile of nondescript orange and green plastic bags. To the untrained eye, the mound of rotting waste looks like all the other trash piled up here, but Jack Perry, one of the owners of HQ Dumpsters & Recycling, said this trash is special. “The…
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When you see a can of beer do you think of agriculture? Well, grain — an essential ingredient in beer — grows on farms that are usually far away from the Northeast. Now an alliance is working to build a regional grain supply chain that supports local farmland, one pint at a time. To find…
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Getting food scraps out of the trash and into the soil will save money and protect the environment. Expert composter Domingo Medina shows you the best ways to do it. This video by Connecticut Public’s Ryan Caron King is part of special coverage from the New England News Collaborative on how climate change is affecting…
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Jeff Backer and Dave Viola are raising about 400 pigs on their farm in Northwood, New Hampshire. The pair sell specialty sausage and salami to customers throughout New England. But they’ve had some trouble getting appointments to bring their animals to the slaughterhouse and process their meat into the products they sell. Backer and Viola…
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The Barre, Massachusetts, Museum Association this week voted to start the process to return objects that once belonged to indigenous people. The vote comes a few days after native leaders from South Dakota visited the museum to lay claim to their ancestors’ belongings. Renee and Manny Iron Hawk, from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and Chief…
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Can you get there from here in Maine with a EV? That’s what Maine Public staff have tried to do while reporting on recent stories for Climate Driven. The main takeaway? EV drivers need to use extra care planning their trips outside of southern Maine, where most of the chargers are. Deputy News Director Susan…
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A lot more people have visited New England’s national forests throughout the COVID-19 pandemic than in years past, and researchers at the University of New Hampshire say that’s created issues for the trails, and for the hikers. Michael Ferguson, a professor of recreation management and policy at the University of New Hampshire, says visitorship in…
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The iconic maple syrup industry is an economic driver in New England and in Maine, the third largest producer in the U.S. But rising temperatures and erratic sap runs are posing big challenges and foreshadowing even bigger changes. If scientists’ predictions are correct, the northernmost reaches of Somerset County could become one of the last…
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The ground is starting to thaw on a gray Saturday afternoon in late March, which means it’s almost time for Albie Barden to prepare his fields for corn. Barden usually plants two or three varieties of corn at his home every year in Norridgewock, Maine. When growing season is over and the corn is harvested,…
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