{"id":1050,"date":"2009-12-08T18:57:55","date_gmt":"2009-12-08T18:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=1050"},"modified":"2012-09-05T18:59:46","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T18:59:46","slug":"agriculture-secretary-addresses-maryland-farm-bureaus-annual-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2009\/12\/08\/agriculture-secretary-addresses-maryland-farm-bureaus-annual-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"Agriculture Secretary Addresses Maryland Farm Bureau’s Annual Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Governor O’Malley offers praise and commitment to farm industry in Chesapeake Bay restoration, land preservation and economic profitability<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ANNAPOLIS, MD (Dec. 8, 2009) \u2013\u00a0 Maryland Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance today brought a message of optimism for the opportunities before the agricultural community today and a call to action on environmental accountability and reporting to the nearly 500 attendees of the Maryland Farm Bureau\u2019s Annual Convention in Ocean City, Maryland.\u00a0 Hance, who served as president of the statewide organization until three years ago, followed a pre-recorded video presentation by Governor Martin O\u2019Malley.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for giving me the opportunity to address you today and to share with you my continued commitment to Maryland agriculture,\u201d said Governor O\u2019Malley.\u00a0 \u201cA prosperous and thriving agricultural industry is so very important to our shared priorities of strengthening our family farms and businesses and to improving the health of our families and the Chesapeake Bay for a smart, green and growing future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAgriculture is, in my mind, the best way of life and the best way to make a living.\u00a0 As we know, it is constantly changing with new technology, consumer demand and political pressures.\u00a0 As research continues to show improved agricultural practices, it is our responsibility to provide you with the technical and financial resources to implement them,\u201d said Sec. Hance in his keynote address. \u201cRenewed regulatory pressure and accountability for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay in aggressive two-year increments is here now and is not going away.\u00a0 We need everyone to pull together to report all on-farm conservation practices, not just the ones installed using government funding, so that the agricultural sector gets credit for all the reductions it has accomplished.\u00a0 We know there is a lot more on the ground than we have information about now. We also know that we are being asked to do more to meet the clean up goals.\u00a0 To that end, as farmers, we need to be more open about how we run our operations.\u00a0 People\u2014policy makers as well as our neighbors\u2014need to understand that we are doing things right and we are doing our part.<\/p>\n

One of the highlights of the past few years is the growth in consumer demand for local products and the opportunity it gives farmers.\u00a0 Grocery stores, restaurants, schools and hospitals are now making it a priority to buy local.\u00a0 In fact, the National Restaurant Association reports that local food will be the hottest trend for 2010.
\nTen years ago, we saw the surging interest in farmers\u2019 markets begin, and 25 years ago we saw the first Chesapeake Bay clean up policies and the birth of our water-quality cost share program.\u00a0 These movements offered a glimmer of what was to come regarding local purchasing and conservation activities. We want to look forward to the next 10 or 15 years to help us plan as an industry for the future.\u00a0 Governor O\u2019Malley and the Agriculture Commission are hosting the Governor\u2019s Agriculture Forum in February. This is an important opportunity for each of us to help guide policy.\u00a0 The first Governor\u2019s Agriculture Forum has shown great results with over 100 of the 109 recommendations from farmers and other stakeholders already completed or underway.\u00a0 I ask each of you to please join us in our planning for a smart, green and growing future for agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his remarks, Governor O\u2019Malley praised the farm community for its conservation leadership and for producing the high quality food products we enjoy.\u00a0 He reiterated that even in these tough budget times, he is providing full funding for farmland preservation programs and is committed to strong funding for conservation cost-share programs including cover crops to help farmers reach the Bay goals. He reiterated his demand to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson for fair and equal treatment in its animal feeding operation and other environmental regulatory programs.<\/p>\n

The Governor illustrated his strong support for the economic well-being of the agriculture community by asking for assistance from Congress for our dairy farmers and others struggling economically. Finally, Governor O\u2019Malley drew attention to the success of the buy local campaign in raising sales and consumption of local products at schools, restaurants, institutions, farmers\u2019 markets as a way to improve the health of our residents and the profitability of farmers.<\/p>\n

To see the Governor\u2019s presentation, visit\u00a0www.mda.state.md.us\/videos\/gov_fb_2009.swf\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The three day conference is the annual event during which the farm organization sets its policies on a vast array of issues facing agriculture and elects its officers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor O’Malley offers praise and commitment to farm industry in Chesapeake Bay restoration, land preservation and economic profitability   ANNAPOLIS, MD (Dec. 8, 2009) \u2013\u00a0 Maryland Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance today brought a message of optimism for the opportunities before the agricultural community today and a call to action on environmental accountability and reporting to  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[229],"class_list":["post-1050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-maryland-farm-bureaus-annual-convention"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1050"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1052,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050\/revisions\/1052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}