Why Maine's Blueberry Farmers Are Losing Millions

0:01 Maine produces 99% of the wild blueberries in the US. They're sweeter and healthier than ordinary blueberries, giving them superfood status. And they bring in $360 million for the state and support more than 2,000 jobs. But now this entire industry is under pressure. 90% of Maine's wild blueberries are scooped up by Canadian-built machines, which soared in price because of tariffs on steel and aluminum. >> Not only were parts more expensive, but for a while they couldn't get any parts. >> To make matters worse, a drought last year led to one of the worst harvests this decade. >> The berries are are burnt on the stem

0:46 already, shriveled up. That's hitting indigenous communities like the Pasimquati especially hard. They've been hand raking the berries here for generations. Today, just a few remote communities are keeping the dying tradition of handh harvesting alive. Both of us would make more money doing our other jobs at home, but we do this because it's like a family. We went to down east Maine to see how pickers, processors, and scientists are racing to save a berry that's grown wild here for 10,000 years. This is an ordinary cultivated blueberry, the cheaper kind you find in

1:33 the grocery store. They come from a species called northern highbush, bred by scientists in the early 1900s to last longer and be larger. While blueberries are smaller, often pricier, and pack more fiber, and twice the antioxidant punch of cultivated ones, they also spoil more quickly. So, processors like Wyman's, which supplies Walmart and Whole Foods, have to get them from the fields within a few hours. These bins are holding 250 to 300 lb of fruit in one bin. The weight of the fruit will start to crush itself a bit. There's going to be juice running in places and so it's just a perfect breeding ground for things that we don't want such as yeast or mold.

2:20 On a good day, we're packing 1.3 million pounds in the 21 hours that we process. >> This robot dumps the fruit onto the line while this winnowing table removes light debris like leaves and sticks. Then they'll go through the initial pass of the first water bath to get all the sediment off the berries. >> Then the berries go to a flotation tank. Ones that are underripe will float off and get composted. >> A lot of times if you overwater a berry, they'll create an air pocket in the center and that's what also will create the berry to float off. >> Adam West would know. He's worked here for 24 years. >> So I'm the fourth generation here at Wyman's. My great-grandfather worked here back in the 60s. My grandfather

3:06 worked here in the late 90s. Do >> you have a kid who's going to come through next? >> Uh, no, I don't currently at this time. It's uh I stopped the bloodline. >> The sweeter ripe berries sink and head to sanitizing. Then they're frozen in this tunnel set at -28° F. Because wild blueberries have such a short shelf life, only a tiny amount is eaten fresh. 99% are shipped out frozen. Finally, this machine bags them up. But in 2025, Wyman's receiving hall was a lot emptier than usual. >> On a normal year, we'd have about 500,000 lb on the floor. Currently, right now, we've got about 100,000 lb on the floor.

3:51 >> That's because they're completely at the whim of a rapidly changing climate. Unlike most American fruits which have been bred for things like drought resistance, consistent look, and shelf life, wild blueberries grow naturally, they're completely untouched by modern breeding. None of these fields are planted. Many of them have been here for hundreds and hundreds of years. Over time, the wild blueberry shrubs have evolved and diversified. Now, there can be 1,500 unique plants in one field, creating a patchwork of colors, shapes, and sizes. They grow in 2-year cycles in these fields called barren. The soil is so acidic and sandy that not

4:37 much else can grow here. Although the roots are hardy enough to thrive in these conditions, the berries are sensitive. Farmers have only one chance to clear this field during harvest season. And all these unique plants ripen at different times. >> We have to acknowledge that there are going to be some fruits that are still green and some fruits that might be overripe when we go in. We're kind of managing to the average. >> For most of history, people handpicked these berries. The Passimacquati Wild Blueberry Company, one of the largest tribe owned farms in America, employs 150 hand harvesters. It's pretty hard, especially, you know, when you don't have many much of your meniscus left.

5:24 And now I have like two knee braces, a back brace, two wrist braces. I'm like half man, half brace. Jim Young has been harvesting these barons for the last 50 years. >> I see some muscles. You got some muscles there. When we went back to school, it' be like solid. Nobody bother you in school. >> Rakers like Jim come from across Maine and Eastern Canada for the month-long season, usually beginning in late July. >> I drive a school bus when I'm down here. I mean, it's a lot different than driving a school bus. >> The Passamquati Wild Blueberry Company pays each picker $2.75 a box. A good

6:12 raker can fill 120 of them a day, which comes out to $330, but this is a dying art form. All of the state's wild berries used to be harvested this way. Now only 10% are. >> You think someday this will be gone to be replaced by machinery. Today, hand harvesters largely operate where it's too hilly or rocky for big machines. >> Million-dollar tractor tumbling down the hillside. That doesn't work very well. >> Over in the flatter areas, machines scoop up berries by the row. Most of these mechanical harvesters and their parts come from Canada.

6:59 But in June 2025, the Trump administration imposed 50% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum right before the start of the wild blueberry season. >> We rely on very few manufacturers for the equipment we need, and that makes us particularly vulnerable. >> That's Eric Venturini, the executive director of the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine. >> For a while, they couldn't get any parts. Manufacturers just decided they weren't going to ship them at all. If that machine breaks down during the season, you're out of luck. >> Rising input prices and weather drove production costs up 50% from 2023 to 2025. >> Even as prices for wild blueberries were flat to declining over the same period

7:45 of time. And so that means the margin is zero to negative. >> In late 2025, Senator Susan Collins asked the Trump administration for emergency funding. To my knowledge, there has not been any response, unfortunately, to the letter about tariffs. Specifically, >> this came during one of the worst wild blueberry harvests in the last decade. During pollination season in the spring, rainfall nearly quadrupled from the year before, so bees didn't visit the blueberry plants as often. >> They're very dramatic. They don't like to go out in the rain. They don't like to go out if it's too windy uh or if it's too cold. But the worst thing to hit mayors in 2025, drought during the harvest season. The

8:30 berries usually need an inch of rain a week. >> We've had just under a tenth in 3 weeks. >> The plants became crunchy overnight. Like you'd put them in the oven for too long. >> Unlike most crops which have a harvest season in the southern hemisphere to fall back on, wild blueberries are only picked in the northeast of the US and eastern Canada. So we get what we get one time a year in terms of the fruit that we're going to have available to sell for the next 12 months. >> This is why Wyman's processed fewer berries than normal in 2025. And it wasn't alone. In a good year, Maine can harvest 100 million pounds. But in 2025, the state brought in just over half that. And farmers lost a combined 28 million. >> There's only so many years in a row that

9:16 a producer can lose money. Every year, Maine loses 8% of its wild blueberry acorage. >> We are seeing people leave the industry. >> Shrinking farmland is hitting communities like the Wabanaki Confederacy hard. >> These indigenous harvesters have handrad these fields for generations. During the season, they live in camps out on the barren. The Pasmquatti Wild Blueberry Company, which owns the camp, once ran five of these harvesting communities. Today, it's down to two, and it's remote up here. So, this is where kids like to hang out. This is where you can get good signal. >> Stephanie Bailey, who oversees the camp,

10:01 showed us inside her cabin. >> We have a wall up in here, so it we're lucky. >> Complete with a small kitchen. My husband built a little shelf in here so I can have a little stove. So I guess my my cabin would be a little bougie. I always tell the campers if you need anything like come and see me if it's sugar, anything. There's no running water in the cabins. >> This is my little bowl for washing my hands. >> And there's no AC so Stephanie brings her own. >> We got the blanket door. >> Yes. So, the AC actually helps big time. Mine's probably the most like homey because I bring my grandsons with me, too. >> The campground has a communal kitchen.

10:47 >> When we do the potlucks on Thursday, Yeah. everybody will be cooking. >> A dining hall. >> So, they had a birthday party in here last night, >> showers, bathrooms, and a laundry room. >> It's a home away from home. at home is people are more sheltered and they use their devices and they're on their TVs and they don't visit each other anymore. Like when I was little, everybody visited everybody. So this reminds me of being little. It's like nostalgic. Despite the heat and the hard work, the community spirit of this camp draws people back season after season. >> Our relatives, Migmar relatives, they come every year, so we get to see people every year. >> And this is Priscilla and her family. They've been coming to the Barren for over 30 years. And this is Donna. Donna

11:32 helps me with cleaning. Oh, there she is. >> We heard you have the second best cabin. Yes, she does. Hers is bougie, too. This is MJ. >> How long have you been coming out here? >> Since I've been 2 years old and >> I'm 45. Almost everyone in this camp is indigenous and berries have been vital to their tribes for millennia. They were a staple food of the Wabanaki Confederacy of which the Pasimquati tribe belongs. They ate wild blueberries fresh in porridge or dried in the winter. The Wabanaki ground them into a natural dye for textiles and woven sweetg grass and use the berries and roots as

12:17 medicine. They were the first to do controlled burnings on blueberry crops to prune the shrubs and kill pests and weeds. The fruit is so important that to this day young girls coming of age will go on a berry fast as a sacrifice to the earth. We're earth people migma ma were banupske. >> We're all related like our languages will sound similar. >> All a big family. We don't know each other. You're still family. Even though it's hot and sweaty and whatever, it's still it's it's just a good time. >> It's everyone's heart basically. Yeah. >> Yeah. Doesn't matter what color or tribe or culture, anything. >> Uhhuh. Doesn't matter how you're shaped

13:03 like me. I don't mind. >> David St. started raking here in the 1980s and fell in love with the community around handh harvesting. He has spent the last 38 years taking pictures of life out here on the barrens. There we go. >> Yeah, that was my first crew. >> He keeps many of his prints in his cabin. >> He was the top raker on the crew, probably 89 or 90 or 91. >> David lives three doors down from Stephanie. He's witnessed the shift in who shows up to harvest from young white punks in the '9s. It >> was was pretty wild back in the day to

13:50 Latino communities from Ecuador and Guatemala today. >> And here's Javier and his family, >> but indigenous pickers have always returned. >> Native family, Mega family was my old crew. And there aren't many bodies of work that really have this kind of depth. I mean, it's re it's it's kind of in, let's be honest, it's sort of insane. Decades and, you know, shot from the inside. And it is, I think, a a a good slice of what this world was like, >> you know, that's now vanished. >> David started coming when most of the barrens were still being handh harvested. Thousands of people like him would move here just to work the wild

14:36 blueberry season. >> Washington County is a very poor county. So it was this incredible injection of you know hundreds of thou millions of dollars that people were spending here and that's all really gone. Just the whole handone culture, their hand raking, the machines have just taken that world away. And that's what I love about the the native community. So they're really trying to hold on to that. >> David is one of the few white people on this raking crew, but he seems to fit right in. >> We're playing Manhunt. >> Uhoh. >> And it's an extreme round. >> An extreme round. Yeah. Who's What's on

15:22 our face? >> Oh, blueberry leaves. >> Wait, is there a picture of me? >> These are from the 1990s. >> '9s and 2000. >> And then this is This is David. >> Yeah, it's me. >> Can you see the resemblance? >> The resemblance? Yeah. >> On the top. >> The top? Yes. Top's a goner. Unfortunately, mother nature said you'll be losing that hair. So helpful. >> A few years ago, the Pasimquati used the revenue from wild blueberries to buy a garbage truck. But for centuries, they didn't own their ancestral barons. In the 1500s, European colonizers began systematically removing Wabanaki people

16:08 from this land. Their populations plummeted 96% due to warfare and disease. Colonizers put out decrees for scout bounties and forced many tribe members onto reservations such as these. They kidnapped Wabanaki children and sent them to residential schools where they were stripped of their culture and identity. It wasn't until the 1860s during the Civil War that the commercial harvest of wild blueberries began to supply Union soldiers with nutrient-dense canned berries. Jasper Wyman started out canning sardines in 1874, but saw a big opportunity in the wild blueberries growing on his land. He founded Wymans,

16:54 one of the largest packers in the industry. Blueberry companies would hire the Wabanaki people to harvest these barons by hand. More than a century later, under the main Indian claim settlement act, the Pasimquati along with two other Wabanaki tribes received more than $80 million for repayment of their stolen land. Using that money, the Pasimuati purchased 2,000 acres of their wild blueberry barons back. It was only a fraction of the land that had originally been taken from them, but they vowed to reinvest profits from the fruit back into the tribe. And to make this money go further, the Passamquati Wild Blueberry Company introduced its own brand of freeze-dried and frozen wild berries. In 2021,

17:44 they've also launched partnerships with wineries, a hot sauce brand, and a Worcester sauce company. >> Martin Luther King said, "I want to buy food from the grocery store." But Malcolm Elk said, "I want to sell you the food from the grocery store." Mhm. And same with this, huh? The natives used to pick it, but now they own it and they sell it. And it's just things are getting better, I think. >> As harvest gets smaller, other companies like Wymans are diversifying, too, and now sells bags of mixed fruit and protein blends. While blueberries make up more than half of its branded business, Wymans has also turned to researchers at the University of Maine to help arm wild

18:30 blueberries for a more volatile future. >> So, we are doing a lot of things. Um, as you can see here, >> PhD student Ali Bellow hails from Nigeria. >> When I came here, I didn't know anything about wild blueberry because wild blueberry is something that we don't have in West Africa. I'm always someone who like to work or to do research on something that will have a positive impact of local farmers. >> He's researching how wild blueberries might adapt to warming temperatures. And he's using these plots to mimic an especially hot and dry year. >> By the end of the century, temperature is projected to increase by 3 to 5°C.

19:19 So as you are seeing here, we use this heating loop. You can touch it here. Now it is very hot. >> Ali and his team test the leaves with this device to see how stressed a plant is in the heat. Here it says the ball is 0.18. Any balu below.5 can be considered a bad number. They are experiencing drought stress. A lot of plants have died because they experiencing high temperature and low precipitation amounts. From what we are seeing so far, it is actually not that bad as long as wild blueberries will receive resources like water. >> The problem is climate projections say

20:06 wild blueberries will only get enough rain during one out of every five harvests going forward. and only a third of the state's barren have irrigation. >> It's like a little bit scary because um as you can see here um some of the wild blueberries they are not doing well. Honestly, it is something that I'm so much worried about. >> Maine has plenty of water for irrigation. The problem is it takes years to build out the sprinkler systems and can cost $4,600 an acre. The Passimaquati estimate it'll cost $4.5 million to irrigate the rest of their baronss. Two years ago, wild blueberry farmers were set to get some help. $15.5 million

20:52 in emergency funding from the US Department of Agriculture earmarked for irrigation. >> It was the first step. It was a massive massive step. That funding would have started our build of resiliency. >> In spring 2025, the Trump administration moved to freeze some federal funds to Maine during a dispute over the state's policies on transgender athletes. >> That money would have gone a long ways. >> This was an especially heavy blow to the industry because scientists here can't breed a more droughtresistant berry. But they can leverage one key advantage. A lot of genetic diversity. >> Plants in this uh plot are doing better

21:40 compared to these ones. >> Why >> some of them are more um drought resilient compared to others. >> Researchers at the Wyman Center are also observing bee behavior to see if there's a specific wild blueberry plant the pollinators like more. and they're looking into the root systems to see if a special fungus can help the plants take in more water during drought >> so that we can mitigate the challenges that mother nature throws at us. So that's really step one. >> But in order to implement any of these learnings, the industry needs more money. Eric's organization, the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine, plans to give out $1.3 million in emergency funding to growers across the state. But he says it's not enough, especially if the industry is going to tackle

22:26 irrigating the rest of the barren. >> Access to capital is a massive piece of it. I know that the federal emergency funding is going to take, you know, much longer. Probably >> a solution couldn't come soon enough because demand for wild blueberries is on the rise in the US thanks to their superfood status. >> Once you try them, what we find is people stick with us. More and more people are finding them in the freezer aisle. >> We don't have Super Bowl level advertising budgets. So, it's word of mouth. >> But while some people are just now discovering wild blueberries, they're nothing new to the generations of Wabanaki families who return to the Barrens every August. >> Both of us would make more money doing our other jobs at home, but we do this

23:13 because it's like a family. >> We've been around for 151 years, and we've seen these things before. It's something we'll get through.