It’s been two years since the Maryland Agricultural Commission undertook an ambitious effort to develop a Statewide Plan for Agricultural Policy and Resource Management. When AFT and its partners on the plan—including the M.D. Agro Ecology Center and Department of Agriculture staff—made the rounds of 25 agricultural and environmental organizations to seek financial support for the project, we encountered a common refrain. Yes, the organizations would give support, but only on one condition: this report would NOT sit on the shelf (like so many others) but would actually be implemented. On May 24, AFT’s Mid-Atlantic States Director Jim Baird attended the first meeting of the statewide plan implementation committee, convened by Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Buddy Hance, who vowed that the donors’ wishes would be respected. The committee consists of agricultural and environmental groups, state agencies and research.

The plan, which emerged from an intensive public input process, stresses the need to enhance farm profitability, ensure an adequate base of protected agricultural land managed for conservation, and stepped-up research, education and advocacy for agriculture. It is an ambitious agenda that is already being taken seriously.

The O’Malley administration’s agriculture transition team drew heavily on the plan in producing their recommendations to the governor. Several report recommendations were acted on in the 2007 legislative session or taken up by various agencies. As committee member Gene Roberts of Fairwood Turf Farm put it, “The process brought together a lot of good ideas from a lot of people and got them up into the air. People are now taking and running with them.”

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