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...
Those who have spent some time reviewing the 2012 Maryland Ag. Census figures may have seen a number of things to smile about. For example, the acres of farmland decreased by just one percent, proving that land preservation programs have been very successful in...
The tenant house may become a key to the future of agriculture in Maryland. Here are the reasons for my surprising conclusion. First, Maryland’s land preservation programs were first developed at a time when farmers needed more land and fewer workers. Successful...
Those who know Ginger Myers know that she is engaging and knowledgeable, but no nonsense. At the Producer’s Digital Toolbox class in Prince Frederick on April 15th, she noted that farmers who sell a product directly to consumers really need a website, and that...
Last week, I wrote that I would be attending the 2014 Maryland Land Preservation Conference and I promised to write a followup as a result of the session. The trip gave me the opportunity to visit one of my favorite Maryland towns (Frederick) and to accept an...
On Friday, I will be speaking at the 2014 Maryland Land Conservation Conference. Preparing for the talk: Helping the Next Generation of Farmers Get Access to Farmland, I began to think about how we got to a place where beginning farmers need help getting started. When...
