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See also: Maine Food Festivals
MAINE FACTS and TRIVIA
FARMS & FARMERS
Maine: approximate land area of 19,745,809 acres.
Farmland is 1,347,566 acres or 6.8% of total land.
Organic agriculture accounts for about 48,984 acres.
Number of Farms: 8,136
Principle Farm Operators: Men: 6,093 Women: 2,043
(2013 - USDA Economic Research Service: www.ers.usda.gov )
[2007-2008 latest available data]
POPULATION & HUNGER
Maine has a total population of: 1,328,188
Urban population: 776,991
Rural population: 551,197
Food insecure households*: 14.7%
Households with very low food security*: 6.5%
*Food insecurity - Limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.
Very low food security - At times during the year, eating patterns of one or more household members were disrupted and food intake reduced because the household lacked money and other resources for food.
(2013 - USDA Economic Research Service: www.ers.usda.gov )
(Population & Food Security data: 2011)
Approximately 40 millions pounds (nearly 90 percent) of the nation's lobster supply is caught off the coast of Maine.
Maine produces about 25% of all the blueberries grown in North America (1998, wild and cultivated combined) and is the largest producer of wild blueberries in the world. Wild blueberries are grown on 60,000 acres in Maine, and 99% of this wild blueberry crop is frozen. (Although some of these are later canned).
90% of the country's toothpick supply is produced in Maine.
The Whoopie Pie was designated the Official State Treat of Maine in 2010. There is an Annual Whoopie Pie Festival in Dover-Foxcraft, Maine.
Also in 2010, Blueberry Pie was designated the Official State Dessert.
Moxie® was designated the Official State Soft Drink of Maine in 2005.
In Wilton, Maine, there's a cannery that imports and cans only dandelion greens.
The honeybee is the official state insect of Maine.
What's a bean-hole bean? No, it's not a bean with a hole in it. Bean-Hole Beans get their name because they are baked in a hole. For hundreds of years, the Penobscot Indians of Maine cooked their food in a hole in the ground lined with rocks.
Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) was designated the Official State Herb of Maine in 1999.
The Wild Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton) was designated the Official State Berry of Maine in 1991.
The Moose (Alces alces) was designated the Official State Animal Of Maine in 1979.
Landlocked Salmon (Salmo salar sebago Girard) was designated the Official State Fish of Maine in 1969.
Maine has also recognized two State Heritage Fish: in 2005, the Eastern Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and in 2007 the Blueback Charr (Salvelinus alpinus oquassa).
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