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Edible Learning: Kids Discover the Value of Farmland in Sustainable Schoolyards

What do we know as a society about the value of farms? In general, the answer may be not enough. Reestablishing the importance of food production within reach of communities is critical to maintaining the environment, a safe and viable food system, and healthy communities. Public awareness is the key to encouraging change, and it all begins in the classroom: the sustainable classroom. This is the message presented by AFT expert Jim Baird at the United State Botanic Gardens on site at the sustainable schoolyard exhibit. The sustainable schoolyard, constructed with help from AFT, will be on display until October. 

Maryland Buy Local Challenge Week

When we buy locally grown foods we adopt good environmental practices while stimulating the economy by putting money directly in the pockets of our local farmer. Buying local, shortens the distance from farm to food-stand and ensures the freshness of the product. In an effort to further support the locally grown food movement, Governor O’Mally has proposed a Maryland Buy Local Challenge Week, July 19-27, during which he asks residents to eat one item per day from a local farm. When food travels a smaller distance between farm and stand, it means not only delicious food but also less greenhouse gases, and that’s a win-win for everyone.

Got Land? Maryland Young Farmers Get a Boost

One of the biggest hurdles for the younger generation wanting to enter farming is the sky-high cost of land. At the final hour of the 2008 Maryland State General Assembly, state legislators passed Senate Bill 662, which addresses the problems of young farmers who want to keep agriculture a part of Maryland’s future.

The bill affects the Agriculture Land Transfer Tax, which is levied when farms that have been paying reduced property tax rates are sold out of agricultural use for development. The money raised by the tax has always been designated to farmland protection. The new bill adds a 25 percent surcharge on the tax, with the new funds targeted specifically at innovative programs including the Next Generation Acquisition Program.

Young farmers testified passionately at the Capitol in support of the bill, describing how it could help them to save their home farm or start up a new farm business. The $2 to 3 million that AFT hopes will be generated in 2009 alone will not only keep open space and fresh food within Maryland’s communities, it will ensure a new generation can live out the dream of making a living on the land. 

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