Maine has faced yet another disruption this week to the funding it normally gets from the federal government.
On Tuesday, the University of Maine System announced that its funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture had been frozen during an investigation of the system’s policies towards transgender athletes.
While the federal agency says the pause is temporary, it’s one that could affect numerous iconic Maine industries. Federal funding has helped the university system to research everything from the climate resilience of potatoes and blueberries to the health of the lobster fishery, and more.
The freeze has potential to further affect Maine farmers who have already been dealing with separate staffing cuts and funding disruptions at the USDA. It also comes after the federal government abruptly terminated the current $4.5 million four-year grant for Maine’s Sea Grant program, which is also administered by UMaine and does research on fisheries and other coastal issues.
So far, the UMaine System has shared few details about how it will be affected by the new funding freeze.
“The System will not be commenting further until further analysis about the impacts of this [freeze] is completed,” Chief External and Governmental Affairs Officer Samantha Warren told the BDN.
In the 2024 fiscal year, the USDA awarded $29.78 million to UMaine for research and extension, according to the system. That worked out to roughly 6 percent of its total operating revenue of $511 million that year.
One section of the university that gets some of the funding is the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. It’s the system’s largest outreach arm and reaches the most Maine people, according to its annual report. It has 16 county offices, numerous research farms and forests and four 4-H camps and learning centers along with online education resources.
The national cooperative extension system was started more than a century ago with a unique funding process that included federal, state and county governments. The extension has previously said it uses local funding from counties and the university to match funds from the USDA and other federal grant programs.
In 2023, 14 percent of the extension’s operating budget came directly from “federal capacity” funding, which is distributed by the USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture. That program has funded expansive research in Maine. Another 35 percent came from grants and contracts.
A spokesperson for the cooperative extension also declined to comment on the impact on the freeze or provide more detail on its funding.
In Maine, both the cooperative extension and the larger university system are major contributors to research on key state industries, including agriculture.
“Everything that we do in the fields basically comes from information the university provides,” said Paul Sweetland, a midcoast blueberry grower and advisory member of the Wild Blueberry Commission who’s worked in the industry since childhood and currently manages about 300 acres.
Extension researchers track and share information that help growers make almost every decision throughout the growing season, Sweetland said, such as tracking the best weather conditions for spraying to prevent the mummy berry fungus from wiping out crops, sharing guidance on how to battle fruit flies and the best ways to mulch and prune fields for higher yields.
Without extension support, Sweetland would be able to keep growing blueberries, but he said some resources might go to waste if the research wasn’t there for guidance. He also speculated that it could be more expensive for the extension to rehire staff if they’re cut during the funding freeze.
“I need the extension to [be able to] do the best I can,” he said. “I hope the freeze does not last.”
The hold on federal funding could also affect the system’s research on potatoes, including at the Aroostook Farm in Presque Isle. At 425 acres, it’s the largest of the farms and labs that form the university’s Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station.
The farm develops, researches and tests tens of thousands of potato varieties. Staff cross-pollinate to create new strains, develop seeds and grow nearly 6,000 test plots. Then they record physical characteristics, effects of pests and diseases and chemical components of each variety. Its most notable success in recent years has been developing a popular variety called the Caribou russet.
That research is important because potatoes are the state’s top agricultural product, with 90 percent of the crop coming from Aroostook County farms. Local testing means varieties are developed in the soil and climate where most of them grow. And as climate change is predicted to make Maine warmer and wetter, the farm is working to develop climate-resistant potatoes.
Just a few months ago, the UMaine System committed $3 million to transform a former storage building into an advanced research lab. It was not immediately clear whether that project might be affected by the funding freeze.
“The Aroostook Farm is important for research and development, as far as new varieties of potatoes go,” said Ethan Braley of Green Meadow Farms in Mapleton, which he operates with his brother, Isaac Braley. “They’ve done a lot of good work and we would hate to see them lose funding.”
Elsewhere in agriculture, the university system is also active in researching contamination from PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” on farmland. It also studies disease prevention for livestock farmers, and funds research on tick populations and a lab to test them for diseases.
It administers 4-H programs around the state educating youth about animal husbandry and agricultural work, which the university estimates reaches 30,000 Maine kids. Extension employees offer home garden support and provide more than 700 online publications on agricultural topics and questions.
According to the university system, USDA funding has also helped pay for research in various other Maine industries, including lobster fishing, breeding of salmon and shellfish and production of new packaging and building materials from forest products.
