Adam Nordell - Defend Our Health

Adam and his wife own Songbird Organic Farm, in Unity, Maine which became central to the PFAS deliberations last winter, after they learned that their organic farm was in fact heavily contaminated by PFAS, from historic sludge spreading. With great courage and integrity, they immediately curtailed their food production and spoke up about this growing problem. This spring (2022) Maine passed a law (LD 1911) that banned the spreading of sludge. As awareness grows about there being no actual safe level of exposure we have to make other choices about what to do with "bio-solids." Adam is now the Campaign Manager for Defend Our Health, working to organize impacted farmers around the state of Maine. Adam describes the process underway to allocate the $60M PFAS aid package. (LD2013) The aid will most importantly offer a safety net for impacted farmers, as well as medical monitoring/care and research. Recently, Senator King introduced a similar bill to support farmers, at the federal level, called Relief for Farmers Hit with PFAS Act. ​In the meantime, Adam talks about slowing down, becoming aware of our sense of place, and using the precautionary principle whenever possible, as a way to protect Mama/Mother Earth.