U.S. Department of Agriculture

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Twelve sweet ideas for Maine in 2012

Better by the dozen
With the new year upon us, we're looking into the future to see what things will be making Maine better in the coming 12 months. Here's a selection of things we'll be watching — and you should, too.
By DEIRDRE FULTON, JEFF INGLIS, AND NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | January 04, 2012

Health 'n' hops

Is beer good for you?
Thomas Jefferson once asserted that beer, when drank in moderation, "promotes health." Trappist monks in Belgium and the Netherlands referred to it as "liquid bread."
By JOSH SMITH | March 29, 2011

Layers of buying local

Going green
When we drink a glass of organic milk, or eat organic pork sausage with our organic scrambled eggs, it’s easy to forget what goes into securing that “organic” label.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 09, 2010

House of Chang

A welcome change in the neighborhood
For more than 30 years, this location housed Lucky Garden, one of the first neighborhood Mandarin-Szechuan restaurants in Greater Boston, and one of the best in stretches.
By ROBERT NADEAU | January 27, 2010

Bad times for the good earth

How are we going to keep them down on the farm?
You could say that the plight of the Massachusetts farmer began during the Great Ice Age, when the Laurentide Ice Sheet scraped over New England leaving poor soil and, as one farmer put it, "rocks, rocks, rocks."
By D.C. DENISON | August 11, 2009

Factory food

Why the cheap, mass-produced food we eat is killing our environment, our economy — and us
Since Squanto taught the Pilgrims to plant maize, no food has been more emblematic of the evolution of American eating habits than corn. That's been true from the sepia-tinged golden age of the Midwestern breadbasket to the present day, where those yellow kernels are lab-engineered and recombinated into a dizzying array of futuristic foodstuffs.
By MIKE MILIARD | June 25, 2009

Ode to fiddleheads

Going green
Do you have pteridomania?
By DEIRDRE FULTON | May 13, 2009

20 reasons the Earth will be glad to see Bush go

As our 43rd president scrambles to screw further with Mother Nature, a look at the ways our planet will be better off under Obama
The planet Earth usually tries to stay out of politics. It doesn't endorse candidates. It doesn't run attack ads. It doesn't even register as a lobbyist.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | December 19, 2008