Cherryfield Foods, Inc. & Maine Wild Blueberry Company, Cherryfield, ME
Grower/Packer/Shipper
2018 - 2020
David Bell leads the Cherryfield Foods Farm management team nurturing 12,400 acres of wild blueberries in Maine and works with dozens of wild blueberry farmers and landowners. He also works with the Maine Wild Blueberry Company processing team freezing, packing, making value added products, storing, and shipping in Washington County Maine. For almost two decades David worked with Maine’s 500 wild blueberry growers and processors to facilitate the only United States Wild Blueberry Research and Extension program, guide world-wide wild blueberry promotion programs, and engage in state and federal public policy development and implementation.
Prior to working in the wild blueberry business, David and his staff at a private organics recycling company worked with hundreds of farms in central Maine providing nutrient management services, recycling soil amendments, and developing on farm composting operations. In the early 1980s he worked with a diversity of fruit and vegetable producers on the east end of Long Island, New York implementing conservation practices and irrigation water management through the USDA Soil Conservation Service and the local soil and water conservation district.
Since the 1990s David has served in leadership roles on state and national agricultural organizations including: The Agricultural Council of Maine, Maine Farm Bureau, University of Maine Board of Agriculture, Wild Blueberry Association of North America, Minor Crop Farmer’s Alliance, National Berry Crop Initiative, and the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance.
Mr. Bell holds a M.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts and a B.S. degree from the University of Maine, both in Plant and Soil Sciences. David and his wife own a 165-acre farm in central Maine leasing the tillable acreage for a potato and forage production rotation, and actively managing the farm wood lot for saw logs and pulpwood. When not on the farm or in the woods, David enjoys being outdoors skiing, boating, camping and hiking.