ANNAPOLIS, MD (March 17, 2011) \u2013 From beef and pork to poultry, lamb, emu and many other meats, Maryland farmers have a wide variety of meats available for consumers who want to buy locally-raised products.\u00a0 The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) is promoting local meats during the month of March through its Maryland\u2019s Best branding program.\u00a0 Maryland\u2019s Best, through its website and limited advertising, helps state producers sell their products and helps consumers locate the products.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaryland livestock producers raise some of the best and freshest meats available,\u201d said Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance.\u00a0 \u201cMDA is encouraging consumers to continue buying locally-produced meats and other farm products. Buying local supports our farmers, rural economies and helps keep Maryland smart, green and growing. It helps the environment by keeping land in farming rather than development and reducing the impacts of transporting our food long distances.\u00a0 Consumers can get to know the livestock producer and how the animals were raised.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2009 Policy Choices Survey by the University of Baltimore Schaefer Center for Public Policy found that 77 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-nine percent of eligible farmland is currently covered by nutrient management plans.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s food pyramid offers selection tips and nutritional information about meat and poultry through its\u00a0website<\/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.<\/p>\n To find a producer near you, visit\u00a0www.marylandsbest.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ANNAPOLIS, MD (March 17, 2011) \u2013 From beef and pork to poultry, lamb, emu and many other meats, Maryland farmers have a wide variety of meats available for consumers who want to buy locally-raised products.\u00a0 The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) is promoting local meats during the month of March through its Maryland\u2019s Best branding Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"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":[49],"class_list":["post-892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-marylands-best"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892","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\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":893,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions\/893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}