Unity

The new graduate school is designed to meet the growing demand for business education focused on sustainability and climate risk.

Unity will debut its applied bachelor's degrees in sustainable business management, psychology and human services, culinary innovation and food systems, entrepreneurship and environmental crime investigation. 

Photographer Jim Neuger visited the annual agriculture fairs in Fryeburg, Unity, Union and Presque Isle to capture the action.

About two-thirds of the state has slid to a warmer half zone since that last edition in 2012, according to the USDA. As the climate has changed, so have farming plans in Maine.

With Unity Environmental University shifting operations to New Gloucester, the school has donated an arts center in its namesake town to the Ecology Learning Center.

Five Pillars Butchery, founded in 2014, provides halal meat to markets, co-ops, restaurants, delicatessens, community-support agriculture programs, hospitals, schools and online customers.

More than 64,000 visitors attended the event in Unity last weekend. That total is the third-highest since the fair began in 1977.

The relocation of Unity Environmental University means the school's original campus, in its namesake town, is now officially on the market.

Unity College, which is now headquartered at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, has embraced "distance education," with 4,472 of its 4,638 students taking custom-designed online courses. About 170 students are enrolled in hybrid learning, with 60 students living on campus.

Money will go toward testing, short-term income replacement, and infrastructure adaptations to help PFAS-impacted farms remain viable.