2012 Ag Census – measuring the local food movement

As mentioned previously in this blog, both the National Restaurant Association and the National Grocers Association have identified the desire for local food as one of the strongest consumer trends. How is Maryland doing? The short answer is that we are making...

Put a cherry on it!

Vacationing here near Lake Michigan, it is easy to eat local. Grocery stores sell milk from local farms (grass fed and antibiotic free). Bread is locally sourced, some of it from organic grain farms. There are lots of greens in the local stores and farmers markets....

A Farmer Friendly Agricultural Law Conference!

Since the botched Hudson case, good things have been happening with ag law in Maryland. Over the decades,  farmers across the nation have seen a steady increase in regulatory requirements  pertaining to environmental protection, food safety, labor and so on. However,...

Organic farming in Maryland– is the trend going up or down?

The 2012 Ag Census gives us a blurry vision of trends in organic production. National media has been reporting steady increases in consumer demand for organic. Are producers as excited about growing food organically? As reported by the National Sustainable Agriculture...

The link between food security and land preservation

It had been 8 years since the last national land preservation conference. I was happy to attend the most recent one in Hershey, PA last week, entitled Saving America’s Farms and Farmland: celebrating 40 Years of Farmland Preservation. It was a chance to...

Growing “community” at the Food Council meet-up!

With all the methods of communication available to use today, one would think that we are well-connected. Not so! I suspect that our rural country stores a century ago provided a better opportunity for meeting and communicating with a broader range of community...