In previous posts, we have talked about the advantages of a strong, local food system, the need for new farmers and the challenges of attracting new farmers. These challenges may be the reason why there are six times more farmers 65 and older than there are farmers 34...
by Greg Bowen and Susan McQuilkin According to The Impact of Agriculture on Maryland’s Economy, published last summer, Maryland’s dairy sector generates over $1 Billion in total annual economic impact, second only to the poultry sector. However, it is...
Recently, you may have seen a number of posts from me about food hubs and the growth potential for local farm-to-table farmers. I guess that others have the same thought in mind. At the Future Harvest CASA conference last week, there was standing-room only for a...
What would it be like to be a farm region without farmers? A friend of mine recently directed me to a Tedx YouTube video of this dynamic young farmer, Lindsey Lusher Shute, who happens to be the Executive Director of the National Young Farmers Coalition. In her...
Last week, the Maryland Department of Planning held the first Maryland Symposium on Planning and the Food System. It was about time. In the last decade or so, many agricultural entrepreneurs seeking to start a new enterprise found planners to be an impediment to...
In a recent Farm Forum post on Maryland FarmLINK, I mentioned a new book “The Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-Mile Diet” which dismissed the local food movement as an upper middle class food movement. Of course, the book’s title is intended to...
