Cranberry specialist cited in BDN report on 2016 crop
The Bangor Daily News quoted Charles Armstrong, a cranberry specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, in a story on the this year’s strong cranberry crop in Maine. Many farms in Maine produced small cranberry crops in the 19th century, the story noted. But the state’s commercial cranberry industry had disappeared by the early 1900s. It took until 1991 for a commercial harvest to return, but cranberries are still considered a specialty crop in the state. “In Maine, our climate is perfect for cranberries, and that’s been interesting, too,” Armstrong told the BDN. “I’ve been following projections on climate change. If the projections were to come true, by 2070 it won’t even be feasible to try to grow cranberries in Massachusetts and New Jersey. They expect the cranberry industry to move north.”