{"id":14250,"date":"2015-05-05T15:56:39","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T19:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=14250"},"modified":"2015-05-05T15:59:16","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T19:59:16","slug":"mda-aims-to-connect-farmers-with-markets-revamped-marylands-best-logos-strive-to-make-the-connection-between-farms-stores-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2015\/05\/05\/mda-aims-to-connect-farmers-with-markets-revamped-marylands-best-logos-strive-to-make-the-connection-between-farms-stores-clear\/","title":{"rendered":"MDA aims to connect farmers with markets; Revamped Maryland\u2019s Best logos strive to make the connection between farms, stores clear"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"ANNAPOLIS, MD <\/strong>\u2013 Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) Secretary Joe Bartenfelder announced that his agency is revamping the state ag branding program, Maryland\u2019s Best. The program started in 2001 to connect consumers with local agricultural products.<\/p>\n

MDA has created a family of Maryland\u2019s Best logos, including a new version that adds the words \u201cFresh\u201d and \u201cLocal.\u201d The current Maryland\u2019s Best logo will remain available for use. All are available in color and black and white. Farmers who wish to use any of the logos will be asked to sign up with the free program at the Department. Click here to sign up<\/a>, or for more information.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our hope that farmers see the value in using these logos on their produce boxes and in farm stands, and that grocery store chains and other food distributors will ask to use the logos for their Maryland products,\u201d said Secretary Bartenfelder. \u201cThere are tremendous opportunities for our farmers to benefit from the growing consumer demand for local agricultural products. We need to do all we can at MDA to help our farmers capture those opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preliminary results of an ongoing evaluation of the Maryland\u2019s Best program by MDA show that 86 percent of in-state consumers surveyed are more likely to buy food labeled with the Maryland\u2019s Best logo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are stepping up our work with this program to emphasize to consumers that agricultural products labeled with \u2018Maryland\u2019s Best\u2019 are local,\u201d said Secretary Bartenfelder. \u201cEvery dollar spent on local agricultural products contributes to the economic health of the community, keeps our land in farming, and helps to support a growing future for Maryland agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous research conducted by MDA has indicated that 78 percent of Marylanders are more likely to buy produce when it is clearly labeled as having been grown in the state.<\/p>\n

MDA will complete its evaluation of Maryland\u2019s Best this summer and use that information to further improve its strategies to connect farmers with market. The evaluation, conducted by Chevy Chase based ag marketing consultant Mark Newman includes surveys of consumers, farmers and food distributors. It also includes interviews with farmers and buyers.<\/p>\n

Farmers, grocery stores, restaurants and food distributors who would like to use the Maryland\u2019s Best logo and work with MDA to promote their Maryland products should click here<\/a> or contact MDA\u2019s Marketing office, (410) 841-5779.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2013 Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) Secretary Joe Bartenfelder announced that his agency is revamping the state ag branding program, Maryland\u2019s Best. The program started in 2001 to connect consumers with local agricultural products. MDA has created a family of Maryland\u2019s Best logos, including a new version that adds the words \u201cFresh\u201d and  Read the Rest…<\/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,"_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":[891,137,892,893,49,194,338],"class_list":["post-14250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-branding","tag-buy-local","tag-consumer-demand","tag-local","tag-marylands-best","tag-produce","tag-promotion"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14250","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=14250"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14254,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14250\/revisions\/14254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}