New Hampshire

Farmers warn N.H. food prices to rise amid tariffs with Canada – The Boston Globe

Published

12 months ago

March 4, 2025

Farmers warn N.H. food prices to rise amid tariffs with Canada – The Boston Globe

“We are all struggling financially,” she said during a roundtable Monday hosted by US Senator Jeanne Shaheen. “Your product has to go up because there’s no way around it. We have to pass it along.”

Hodge said while it would be possible to source containers within the US, her farm already has the specific molds and plates that match the containers she orders from Canada. Plus, she said, there’s a lot of time and cost involved in switching to a new provider.

In addition to tariffs, she said some ingredients are also more expensive than ever, such as cocoa, which has reached a 50-year high, and eggs, as flocks face the strain of bird flu. At a meeting last week with Hannaford supermarkets, a Maine-based chain that distributes pudding from Echo Farm, Hodge said she increased the price of her product to try to keep up with her costs. It will take at least 90 days for those higher prices to appear on the shelf, according to Hodge.

“Those are the things that really are impacting us, but it’s also impacting the dairy industry at large,” she said. “We export a lot of cheese in this country. We export it to Mexico. Those things are going to be impacted.”

Also contributing to the price increase is the hay Hodge said she imports from Canada to feed her herd. Farmers are bracing for the cost of feed imported from Canada to go up.

Roger Noonan owns Middle Branch Farm in New Boston and is the president of the New England Farmers Union. He said organic dairy farmers in New England get most of their high-protein feed from Canada, and said tariffs will have a significant impact.

Noonan said one of the union members in central Vermont, Deep Root Organic Cooperative, includes seven farms in Canada. The cooperative contracts with Whole Foods and other organic vendors.

“They’re really in a panic right now,” Noonan said, because of tariffs. “They’re not sure if they’re going to be able to buy product from their members in Canada.”

While tariffs are supposed to make domestic products more competitive compared to imports, Trevor Hardy of Brookdale Fruit Farm in Hollis said he’s seen the opposite happen when it comes to some fruits and vegetables from Canada.

“The New England produce terminal in Boston, they quit buying honeycrisp (apples) from us, and they’re buying it from Canada,” said Hardy, who is also the president of the New England Vegetable and Berry Growers Association. He used to sell six to eight pallets to Boston every week.

Hardy said Canadian suppliers sell in the United States because the US dollar is stronger than the Canadian dollar. But, he said, the threat of tariffs led Canadian suppliers to lower their prices to avoid losing sales, undercutting his prices.

“All these tariff threats just ruined the market for US stuff,” he said.

“The cost to grow stuff in the United States is only going to continue to rise and have more outside pressure competing for our markets,” he added.

Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.

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New Hampshire

N.H. woman accused of civil rights violation after allegedly shooting at lost man because he was Black

Published

6 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

N.H. woman accused of civil rights violation after allegedly shooting at lost man because he was Black

Local News

Diane Durgin, 67, is accused of shooting at a Black man who inadvertently drove to her property after a prearranged truck part sale, prosecutors said.

A New Hampshire woman is accused of violating the state’s Civil Rights Act four times after she allegedly shot at a man because he was Black, prosecutors said.

Diane Durgin, 67, of Weare, N.H. could face up to a $5,000 fine for each violation she is found to have committed, the office of New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said in a press release Tuesday.

Durgin is also charged with criminal threatening against a person with a deadly weapon and attempted first degree assault with a deadly weapon, Michael Garrity, a media representative for the New Hampshire Attorney General, said in an emailed statement to Boston.com.

Durgin had a final pre-trial conference last week, Garrity said.

In a civil complaint filed Tuesday, Durgin is accused of threatening physical force against the victim, the AG said. Prosecutors asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction barring Durgin from repeating her alleged behavior and from contacting the victim and his family.

During the morning hours of Oct. 20, 2024, the victim claims, he “mistakenly” drove to Durgin’s home after a prearranged purchase of a truck part with a seller online, prosecutors wrote as part of their request for an injunction.

When the man — whom prosecutors identified in court documents as X.G. — arrived, Durgin allegedly stepped out of her home and approached his car with a gun “holstered by her waist,” prosecutors wrote.

Upon noticing that X.G. was Black, Durgin allegedly “removed her gun and pointed it at X.G.,” prosecutors said in the injunction request.

While X.G. explained that he was lost, Durgin called the victim a “Black mother[expletive],” and threatened to “kill him,” prosecutors allege.

As the victim attempted to drive away, Durgin allegedly took her gun and fired two shots at the fleeing man’s car, missing both times, the AG’s office said.

While on the phone with a dispatcher, Durgin allegedly said she shot the man’s car because the victim is Black, the AG said.

“The guy is Black. And he, he…he says he’s meeting someone here and I think he’s coming here to steal,” Durgin allegedly said.

Police located X.G. and brought him to the Weare Police Department, stopping along the way at the correct seller’s home to complete the truck part purchase, prosecutors wrote in court documents.

To prove a violation of the New Hampshire Civil Rights Act, the AG must show that Durgin “interfered or attempted to interfere with the rights of the victim to engage in lawful activities by threatening to engage in or actually engage in physical force or violence, when such actual or threatening conduct was motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or disability,” prosecutors said.

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New Hampshire

Up to 4 inches of snow expected in NH tonight. See latest forecast

Published

18 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Up to 4 inches of snow expected in NH tonight. See latest forecast

It may be March, but winter in New Hampshire is far from over. Just one week after a blizzard tore through the state with heavy snow and high winds, the state is getting another round of snowfall.

The state will get three to five inches during the evening and night of Tuesday, March 3, says the National Weather Service (NWS) of Gray, Maine. While the accumulation will not be significant, the snowfall may cause dangerous road conditions and a layer of ice on the ground in certain parts of the state.

Here’s what to know before tonight’s snow in New Hampshire, including snow totals and timing.

When will it snow in NH tonight?

According to the NWS, it will start snowing in New Hampshire during mid-afternoon or early evening and continue through the night. Specifically, snow will arrive to the southern part of the state around 2-3 p.m., spreading northwards through the rest of New Hampshire by 5 p.m.

Rain or freezing rain will mix in later this evening across southern New Hampshire, creating a wintry mix. All precipitation should move out of the state by midnight.

Due to the timing of today’s snowfall, the Tuesday evening commute will be affected, with the NWS warning to slow down and exercise caution while driving.

How much snow will NH get tonight?

New Hampshire will get one to four inches of snow tonight, with one to two inches in northern New Hampshire, two to three inches in southern New Hampshire and three to four inches in the center of the state, with the possibility for five inches in localized areas.

In the Seacoast specifically, Portsmouth, Rye, Hampton and York are expected to get between two to three inches of snow, while Dover, Exeter and Rochester may get up to four.

The wintry mix may also cause a light glaze of ice across southern New Hampshire.

NH weather watches and warnings

The NWS has issued a winter weather advisory for the state of New Hampshire, in effect from 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3 through 4 a.m. on Wednesday, March 4.