{"id":1311,"date":"2010-02-26T17:37:07","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T17:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=1311"},"modified":"2012-09-26T17:38:50","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T17:38:50","slug":"marylands-best-promotes-locally-raised-meats-during-march-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2010\/02\/26\/marylands-best-promotes-locally-raised-meats-during-march-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland&#8217;s Best Promotes Locally-Raised Meats during March"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><strong><em>More than 100 local farms have meats for sale<\/em> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>ANNAPOLIS, MD (February 26, 2010) \u2013 From beef and pork, to poultry, bison, lamb, emu and many other meats, Maryland farmers have a wide variety of meats available for consumers who want buy locally-raised products. Even though there might not be any fresh fruits or vegetables available during the winter months, consumers can still support Maryland agriculture.\u00a0 The Maryland Department of Agriculture is promoting local meats during the month of March through its Maryland\u2019s Best branding program.\u00a0 Maryland\u2019s Best, through its website <a title=\"MarylandsBest.net\" href=\"http:\/\/www.MarylandsBest.net\">MarylandsBest.net<\/a> and advertising, helps consumers find local producers.<br \/>\n\u201cMaryland livestock producers raise some of the best and freshest meats available,\u201d said Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance.\u00a0 \u201cThe Maryland Department of Agriculture is encouraging consumers to continue buying locally-produced meats and other farm products. Buying local helps keep Maryland smart, green and growing by sustaining farmers and our rural economies as well as the environment by keeping land in farming rather than development and reducing the impacts of transporting our food long distances.\u00a0 In addition, consumers can get to know the livestock producer and how the animals were raised.\u201d<br \/>\nThe 2008 Policy Choices Survey by the University of Baltimore Schaefer Center for Public Policy found that 78 percent of Marylanders are more likely to buy produce that is identified as having been grown by a Maryland farmer.\u00a0 In addition, nearly all of those surveyed said that it is at least \u201csomewhat important\u201d that the state preserve land for farming and most residents are concerned about the environment. Maryland livestock farmers are protecting the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries through the use of nutrient management plans and many other on-farm conservation activities.\u00a0 Ninety-eight percent of eligible farmland is currently covered by nutrient management plans.<br \/>\nThe U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s food pyramid offers selection tips and nutritional information about meat and poultry through its <a title=\"website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mypyramid.gov\/pyramid\/meat.html\">website<\/a>. The site notes that lean cuts of meat and poultry are healthy aspects of your diet, especially when it comes to providing necessary proteins.<br \/>\nFor more information or to find local meat products, visit <a title=\"MarylandsBest.net\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marylandsbest.net\">MarylandsBest.net<\/a>.<br \/>\n###<br \/>\nFollow MDA on Twitter <a title=\"@MdAgDept\" href=\"http:\/\/www.Twitter.com\/MdAgDept\">@MdAgDept<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 100 local farms have meats for sale ANNAPOLIS, MD (February 26, 2010) \u2013 From beef and pork, to poultry, bison, lamb, emu and many other meats, Maryland farmers have a wide variety of meats available for consumers who want buy locally-raised products. Even though there might not be any fresh fruits or vegetables<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2010\/02\/26\/marylands-best-promotes-locally-raised-meats-during-march-2\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311","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\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1314,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions\/1314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}