On May 12, Governor Martin O’Malley announced ambitious two-year milestones to accelerate Maryland’s efforts to reach its current nutrient reduction goals by 2020. These milestones include plans to double the state’s Cover Crop program and expanding efforts to establish forested buffers and wetlands, primarily through the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP).

The Cover Crop Program controls soil erosion and reduces nutrient runoff. It is one of the most cost effective and sustainable ways to protect soil and water quality over the winter months. This year $12 million in cover crop funding is available, which means that farmers can plant nearly 290,000 acres in protective cover crops following the fall harvest. For more information on the Cover Crop program click here.

Local soil conservation districts statewide are now accepting applications for the newly revitalized Maryland CREP. Farmers interested in earning extra farm income by taking environmentally-sensitive cropland out of production for 10 to 15 years and planting streamside buffers, protecting highly erodible land or establishing wetlands to safeguard local streams should call or visit their local soil conservation district to take advantage of this popular program. For more information about CREP, what it can do for farmers, and how to sign up click here.

This year, Buy Local Week will take place from July 18-26. During this week, Marylanders are asked to eat at least one locally grown product each day. Governor Martin O’Malley will kick off the challenge with a cook out at Government House on July 16. The hope is that as people become more familiar with eating food in season, they will look for and buy local products all year long.

Farmers now get less than 10 cents of the retail food dollar. Buying local food helps local farmers take home more of the dollars we spend on food and promotes healthy eating habits, fresh food, local families, local economies, and is safer because you know where it is coming from.

The Maryland’s Best and the Buy-Local-Challenge website have plenty of recipes from local chefs that will make you love your local produce even more and if you want to eat local all year round, including a chart of what is in season.

Maryland ACReS, the Maryland Agricultural Conflict Resolution Service, is up and running with a new program administrator, Mae Johnson. ACReS is a proven confidential mediation service meant to be a less expensive and stressful alternative to court for the agricultural community. The program is free or low cost for both parties (with both parties sharing the cost, if any).

ACReS promotes conversation and a non-adversarial process to resolving farm-related disputes. Participants come up with the solution, not the mediator, and the goal is to develop mutually acceptable options. In 2006, a law passed in Maryland requiring that mediation must be given a chance before action is taken against an agricultural operation in court. If a solution is not reached through mediation, then litigation is still an option. For more information read the Maryland ACReS fact sheet.

Maryland Homegrown Lunch Week will take place this year from September 14-18. The Farm to School program encourages schools to serve local produce from local farms and to educate students on the benefits of fresh fruits and vegetables. Through the program, children and their teachers learn how to eat healthfully and deliciously and how to make wise decisions when choosing a meal. Nutritionists have found that kids like food that tastes good and the Farm to School program teaches kids that fresh, healthy food does taste good. In the long term, kids who learn to eat well early in their lives will be healthier adults and will understand the connection between the farms they see around them and their food.

In the first year of the Maryland Farm to School program, almost every school system participated in the effort to include locally grown food into school lunch and curriculum.  The schools bought products from 30 different Maryland farms. This year, the program is on target to grow, introducing even more students and educators to the delicious taste of local produce as well as its nutritional, environmental, and economic value.

Nationally, Farm to School is active in 400 school districts throughout 23 states. This program creates additional income for farmers and supports the local economy. For more information, visit the Farm to School Web site.

At Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, MD from June 16-18 high school students will compete using their agricultural knowledge and problem-solving skills to solve environmental challenges. The winner will go on to represent Maryland and compete against 300 plus other teenagers from the US and Canada at the Canon Envirothon at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Students have trained throughout the past year by categorizing living resources, performing soil surveys, and estimating wood yield. They worked with soil scientists, wildlife specialists, foresters, and environmental engineers from both state and federal agencies and also from private organizations.

The focus of the event this year is “biodiversity in a changing environment.” For more information on the Maryland and North Carolina competitions, click here.

Tom Hartsock, the new Chair for the Maryland Agricultural Commission, has a lifetime of experiences with agriculture.  He grew up on a dairy farm in central Pennsylvania where he was involved in 4-H.  Throughout his college years, Hartsock focused his studies on swine and researched ways to adapt swine facilities to natural behaviors in order to assist pork producers in overall management.   He received a Ph. D. in Animal Nutrition from Pennsylvania State University where he wrote his dissertation on the “Behavior and Nutrition of Newborn Domestic Swine.”  He is a recently retired professor at the University of Maryland where he taught a variety of courses, although in his last years he mostly specialized in teaching livestock management of beef, sheep, goats and swine.  While there, he also served as Director of the Institute of Applied Agriculture (IAA).

As Chairman, Hartsock hopes to help the citizens of Maryland understand full breadth of the term “agriculture.”   He wants to instill the idea that agriculture is a part of daily life and encompasses more than just swine and soybeans.  He wants to reinforce that many other fields such as forestry and wildlife are also included in the umbrella term “agriculture.”

Another goal Hartsock has is to help secure the future of agriculture in Maryland.   He believes one way to do this is to increase profitability of agriculture, which will ensure that people who have an interest in an agricultural profession are able to make a profitable living and follow through with these dreams.  He also hopes to minimize the development of farmland, an unfortunate trend that results from an expanding population and high land prices.

Hartsock has an abundance of experiences that equip him for his new position.  On a personal level, Tom owns and operates Porky Pines Farm in Clarksburg, Maryland, which currently produces hay that he sells and feeds his horses.  Hartsock serves on the Maryland Pork Producers Association Board of Directors, the Montgomery County Farm Bureau Board of Directors and served on the Maryland Organic Certification Advisory Committee.

Hartsock is a father of two, a grandfather of three and a Modern Western Square Dancer.

June is National Dairy Month and it is strawberry season. You can celebrate at home with homemade strawberry ice cream made with locally-grown products.

• 1 pint strawberries
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 cups light cream
• very cold juice of half a lemon

Visit Maryland’s Farmers’ Markets for a Wide Variety of Local Produce