{"id":2005,"date":"2010-09-17T18:35:47","date_gmt":"2010-09-17T18:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=2005"},"modified":"2012-10-10T18:38:45","modified_gmt":"2012-10-10T18:38:45","slug":"maryland-announces-grant-awardees-for-specialty-crops-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2010\/09\/17\/maryland-announces-grant-awardees-for-specialty-crops-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Announces Grant Awardees for Specialty Crops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Selected Projects include Food Safety, Sod, Christmas Trees, and Wine<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

ANNAPOLIS, MD (Sept. 17, 2010) \u2013 The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) today announced winners of $387,455 in grants that will enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops in Maryland. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant Program was authorized under the Specialty Crops Competitiveness Act of 2004, and amended under the 2008 Farm Bill.\u00a0\u00a0 Funding is expected to be made available to MDA for the specialty crop block grants from 2010 through 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pleased to announce awardees of the Maryland Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. The 2008 Farm Bill provided significant grant funding dedicated to specialty crops to become available,\u201d said Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance. \u201cThese funds are a great opportunity to help farmers and value-added producers advance and promote local specialty crops in the marketplace and help keep Maryland smart, green and growing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following is a snapshot of the eight selected projects:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Barr-Net, Inc. \u2013 $18,500 \u2013 to develop and field trial biodegradable sod production netting and roll wrap from keratin (protein from chicken and turkey feathers) for Maryland\u2019s sod production industry. The overall objective is to develop technologies to support Maryland sod farmers\u2019 commitment to producing sod in an environmentally responsible manner.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Crossroads Farmers Market \u2013 $25,000 \u2013 to increase specialty crop sales of fruits and vegetables to low-income populations in eight Maryland communities. The campaign promotes usage of the new Women, Infant, Children (WIC) Fruit and Vegetable Check (FVC) at farmers markets, particularly those offering double value coupons for eligible clients.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hoopla, Inc. \u2013 $25,000 \u2013 to produce a one-hour documentary film entitled “Maryland on the Menu” to promote: a new respect for local growers; an emphasis on healthy eating; skill in adapting local products to various ethnic and foreign cuisines; and a new interest in Maryland local culinary traditions and heirloom varieties.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maryland Agricultural Resource Council \u2013 $25,000 \u2013 to maintain the \u201cNew Farmer Trainee Program (NFTP, which assists highly motivated novice farmers to gain sufficient farming experience over a one year period to enable them to start farming independently.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maryland Christmas Tree Association (MCTA) \u2013 $43,638 \u2013 to continue the state wide marketing and communications campaign \u201cBuy Local-Buy Real\u201d to inform consumers of the benefits of selecting\u00a0 real Maryland Christmas trees and purchasing them at local farms.\u00a0 This year, MCTA is working with the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia and the American Latvian Association to promote the celebration of the 500 year anniversary of the first decorated Christmas tree which occurred in Riga, Latvia.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maryland Wineries Association \u2013 $40,000 \u2013 to create, promote and manage four new public events in 2011 featuring Maryland wine and specialty crops. The events will be branded \u201cEat Drink Go Local: Maryland\u2019s Best,\u201d combining local agricultural and tourism themes. Each of these events would focus on wine and the produce available at the moment, focusing on regionality and seasonality of our fine local farm products. The events will be located in small, historic towns throughout the state, bringing tourists into rural areas.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maryland Department of Agriculture<\/p>\n

o\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $177,702 \u2013 to reduce economic and technical assistance barriers facing Maryland fresh fruit and vegetable producers in implementing an effective food safety program and to continue a specialized, cost effective program for direct marketers<\/div>\n
o\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $32,615 \u2013 to establish a voluntary statewide database containing specific information on specialty crops produced in Maryland that will help pesticide applicators identify locations where extra care should be taken to protect specialty crops from harmful pesticide exposure.<\/div>\n

Specialty crops are defined as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops. MDA created a competitive grant process with a review committee to award these federal funds in 2009. Funding priorities, identified by Maryland specialty crop producers, included: marketing with Maryland\u2019s Best, food safety, and producer innovation.<\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n

Follow MDA on Twitter @MdAgDept<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Selected Projects include Food Safety, Sod, Christmas Trees, and Wine ANNAPOLIS, MD (Sept. 17, 2010) \u2013 The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) today announced winners of $387,455 in grants that will enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops in Maryland. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant Program was authorized under the Specialty Crops  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,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_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":[],"class_list":["post-2005","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\/2005","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=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2006,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions\/2006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}