{"id":20784,"date":"2016-11-03T09:30:06","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T13:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=20784"},"modified":"2016-11-02T16:59:19","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T20:59:19","slug":"state-agriculture-department-announces-homegrown-by-heroes-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2016\/11\/03\/state-agriculture-department-announces-homegrown-by-heroes-program\/","title":{"rendered":"State Agriculture Department Announces \u2018Homegrown By Heroes\u2019 Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federalsburg Dairy Farmer Honored at Event in Easton<\/em><\/h3>\n
\"Left<\/a>

Left to Right: State Senator Stephen Hershey; Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Joe Bartenfelder; Bob Miller, Nice Farms Creamery; Tim Cureton, Rise Up Coffee; Noah Kegley, Rise Up Coffee; State Delegate Johnny Mautz; Paul Baumgardner, Board Chairman, MidAtlantic Farm Credit<\/p><\/div>\n

\nANNAPOLIS, MD \u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 The Maryland Department of Agriculture\u2014in partnership with the Farmer Veteran Coalition and MidAtlantic Farm Credit\u2014announced the Maryland\u2019s Best Homegrown By Heroes program at an event on Wednesday in Easton. In an effort to support Maryland veterans who have returned home to the farm, the program will provide unique signage to identify and promote products at farmers\u2019 markets and local groceries grown by local veterans.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI am proud to announce this new program in support of our state\u2019s military veterans,\u201d said Agriculture Secretary Joe Bartenfelder. \u201cThese brave men and women have served and protected our country, and they deserve all the support we can give. I encourage all Marylanders to seek out products with the \u2018Homegrown By Heroes\u2019 label.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dairy farmer Bob Miller of Nice Farms Creamery<\/a> in Federalsburg is the first farmer to register with Maryland\u2019s Best Homegrown By Heroes<\/a> program. Miller was honored at Rise Up Coffee Roasters in Easton, where Secretary Bartenfelder and leaders from MidAtlantic Farm Credit presented him with the first official Maryland\u2019s Best Homegrown By Heroes signage.<\/p>\n

Miller started his micro-creamery in 2009 after serving five years as an officer in the United States Army. His was one of the first farms in the state to adopt an intensive grazing approach in lieu of conventional confinement. Nice Farms Creamery is one of the few remaining dairy operations in Caroline County.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am honored to be the first official participant in the Maryland\u2019s Best Homegrown By Heroes program,\u201d said Miller. \u201cIn today’s highly competitive marketplace, many unique products are overlooked by consumers. This program provides Maryland veterans with a valuable tool to help them stand out from the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s family of Maryland\u2019s Best logos was created to identify and promote products as locally grown or produced. The addition of the Homegrown by Heroes logo expands on this effort and recognizes a small but important group of farmers who have served honorably and returned to the land.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Farmer Veteran Coalition was granted the honor of administering the \u201cHomegrown By Heroes\u201d program nationally on Veterans Day 2013. The program currently boasts over 550 members in 48 states plus Puerto Rico. The \u201cHomegrown By Heroes<\/a>\u201d program is available free of charge to Maryland farmers who have served in any branch of the armed services. Eligible farmers interested in joining the program are encouraged to visit the Farmer Veteran Coalition website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Look for the Maryland\u2019s Best and the Homegrown by Heroes logo at your favorite groceries and markets. If you don\u2019t see it, ask for it!<\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n

Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter @MdAgDept<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federalsburg Dairy Farmer Honored at Event in Easton ANNAPOLIS, MD \u00a0\u2013 The Maryland Department of Agriculture\u2014in partnership with the Farmer Veteran Coalition and MidAtlantic Farm Credit\u2014announced the Maryland\u2019s Best Homegrown By Heroes program at an event on Wednesday in Easton. In an effort to support Maryland veterans who have returned home to the farm, the  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"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-20784","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\/20784","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\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20785,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20784\/revisions\/20785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}