Robert Burns, an organic farmer in eastern Connecticut, is candid in describing his business interest in state legislation requiring that genetically modified food be labeled. “If you’re an organic producer now, you should get ready for an increase in sales,” said the grower of lettuce, mung beans, red winter wheat berries and other vegetables. Click on this environmental headline for more on this story from Stephen Singer of The Associated Press in Hartford, Conn.

Agriculture Commissioner Steven K. Reviczky has announced that the State Bond Commission approved $5,000,000 in funding on Monday for the Connecticut Department of Agriculture’s new Farmland Restoration Program. Authorized by Public Act 11-1, this voluntary program provides matching grants of up to $20,000 for restoration activities that increase the state’s farmland resource base for agriculture, with an emphasis on prime and important farmland soils and on human and livestock food production. It is expected that the program will be able to work with over 250 farms. Click on this environmental headline for more on this story.

Two north central Connecticut legislators are pushing for the creation of a select committee that would focus solely on agricultural issues — an area that they say deserves heightened awareness right now. The Hartford Courant reports.

A dean of New Milford’s farmers and his wife, Beth, 88, to whom he has been married 65 years, still live in the home they built in 1953 alongside the original farm homestead that dates back to the 1840s.Nanci G. Hutson of the Danbury News-Times reports.

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), the U.S. Forest Service, the Simsbury Land Trust (SLT) and Town of Simsbury have announced completion of a Forest Legacy Conservation Easement on 73-acres of Tulmeadow Farm, Simsbury. The easement, acquired for $2.8 million, is the final phase of an effort to protect 260 acres of
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Register today for our Getting Started in Organic Farming Conference to be held Saturday, January 28, 2012 at the CT Forests and Parks Association in Middletown, CT. The Getting Started in Organic Farming Conference draws both beginning farmers who choose to farm organically and established farmers who are converting their operations to organic.

The town and the Connecticut Department of Agriculture have purchased development rights for 164 acres of farmland, preserving two adjoining properties on Phelps and Quarry Roads.

The Land Trust Accreditation Commission is now accepting public comment on the Connecticut Farmland Trust’s (CFT) application for Accreditation. With an office in Hartford, CFT is Connecticut’s only statewide land trust and the only land trust dedicated to the protection of agricultural lands.

There’s a plan in the works for a year-round farmers’ market in downtown Shelton. Question is: Who will run it?

The first thing to know is that this is real. Turning abandoned factories into indoor farms is not only feasible, but already getting started around the world. And it could happen here.

A new voice will be fighting to preserve Connecticut’s farmland. The Connecticut Farmland Trust has named Jim Gooch as its new Executive Director. Gooch comes to CFT from the Portland, Maine, office of The Trust for Public Land where as Program Director he was instrumental in funding new conservation projects and building diverse partnerships.

State agencies need to find ways to work with Connecticut farmers to bolster their profits and promote the importance of buying locally grown goods to ensure the future health of the industry, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Wednesday. The Norwich Bulletin reports.

With increasing interest in fresher, more healthful foods, it’s no surprise that farmers markets are sprouting across the state faster than asparagus on a warm spring day. Connecticut now has well over 100 markets, from the gantlet of vendors along the sidewalk fronting New Haven City Hall to the circle of booths on New Hartford’s bucolic Pine Meadow Green.

The Rose Farm, which Robert Rose established in North Branford in 1646, is still going strong — though he’d probably wonder where his outhouse went and assume the farm’s website was some kind of spider exhibit.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney toured four agriculture-based businesses in Waterford, Preston, Pomfret and North Grosvenordale on Monday to gather information for the soon-to-start congressional hearings on the farm bill re-authorization.

While the biggest group representing Connecticut’s industrial sector was down about the recently concluded General Assembly session, the agricultural sector took a decidely different view.

Futtner’s Family Farm was recently featured as part of an exhibition at the state’s Legislative Office Building celebrating the successes of Connecticut’s Community Investment Act.

The owner of a farm in Easton says in order to stay in business he needs the revenue a cell tower would bring.

A Monroe farmer is pushing the town to adopt a “right to farm” ordinance that would protect farmers from neighbors who might deem them a nuisance.

“From a New England perspective, I would say Connecticut has been the most aggressive in the last couple of years in terms of the farmland perspective, which has been wonderful,” said Cris Coffin, New England director of the American Farmland Trust. The money spent represents a tiny fraction of Connecticut’s budget, which is $19 billion
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