Recently, I had a member of Maryland FarmLINK call me to protest about the price of farmland that she thought I was posting. She said bluntly, “How do you expect farmers to pay those prices and make a living?” I responded that I don’t post properties...
At a recent Future Harvest event in Baltimore County, Marilyn Anthony, Executive Director of Lundale Farm in Pennsylvania, raised the notion that the future for farming may be “land lease” rather than “land ownership.” Her reasons were simple...
Beginning farmers usually don’t get into the business to get rich and most tend not to be “cash-heavy”. Therefore, they find access to farmland to be a challenge. Over the last 60 years, Maryland lost a little more than 1 million acres of farmland,...
We Americans are used to seeing larger businesses outperform and consume smaller businesses. That trend is apparent in the agriculture industry, where four corporations control 80% of all meat processing and a just a few control control nearly all the seeds sold for...
A farmer recently contacted me about using Maryland FarmLINK to post the need for a farm worker. I encouraged him to do so and noted that there is no charge to post on the farm forum. Availability of farm labor is a common concern. If you are not genuinely interested...
The St. Mary’s County Twilight Vegetable Tour proved to be a horticultural and cultural learning experience. Growing up in Calvert County, my opportunities to spend time with the Mennonite and Amish communities had been limited–there were none in Calvert;...