A farm in Albion has discovered harmful forever chemicals in some of their products.
Late last week, the owners of Misty Brook Farm found out some of their cow milk was contaminated with PFAS.
Now they’re waiting for test results from the state.
Until then, they can’t sell their milk.
Misty Brook Farm is an organic family farm where owners Brendan and Katia Holmes produce and sell everything from meat and eggs to grains and milk.
“It’s important for farms like us to be here in this state,” Katia Holmes said.
After seeing PFAS contamination cases across the state, they took it upon themselves to test their own farm.
They found high levels of forever chemicals in the milk.
They say it came from hay they bought from an outside farm.
“And that is what we believe contaminated our cows,” Brendan Holmes said.
They pulled all their products from the shelves of 35 local grocery stores.
“At first, it was kind of a bit of disbelief because we really thought we were producing the highest quality product we could,” Katia Holmes said.
“And you feel bad when somebody calls you, leaves a message wondering what to do because they’ve been feeding it to their two-year-old,” Brendan Holmes said.
On Tuesday, the state will do more testing on the farm.
Those results will take four to five weeks, and it will take about a year to get the chemicals out of their cattle.
In the meantime, they plan to buy clean cattle and hay, but the bills keep piling up.
“We need assistance now,” Brendan Holmes said. “We need money now.”
They say they could run out of money in a week and half.
“It’s not about the stress of not being able to pay our bills for us, it’s more trying to get the message out there,” Katia Holmes said.
In Augusta, lawmakers are working on a bill that would prohibit contaminating soil with these chemicals.
Representative Bill Pluecker issued a statement about the issue.
When we buy land and start a farm it is with the faith that the land is strong and healthy and that we can build our families and businesses in cooperation with the land. When we find out that the soil and water are contaminated by actions that happened decades before we started our businesses, that our families might have been hurt by the land, it is like getting the rug pulled out from under us.
As a State, we depend upon our clean land and water for our businesses and food. We must take all actions possible to prevent it’s contamination from PFAS and protect our farmers who have been affected.
1911 begins this work, and I am proud to do the hard work of preventing the further contamination of our agricultural lands.
“This is an issue that I know all too well,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said.
The problem is even getting the attention of the EPA.
“There is $8 million in the bi-partisan infrastructure law that focuses specifically on contaminants like PFAS,” Regan said.
“We are not the only farm,” Katia Holmes said. “We’re not going to be the only farm. This is a much bigger problem.”
Even before the state sent them a cease-and-desist letter, the farmers pulled their product from the shelves.
Source: WGME
