Keep Farmers Farming
Our Priorities
We believe that a strong farming
community is the key to smart growth. Keeping farmers profitable helps farmers
afford to stay on the land and produce fresh local foods, goods and services,
thus keeping rural lands in active production - not sprawling development.
Ensuring economic security for farmers allows us to target limited preservation
dollars to our open spaces and limited infrastructure dollars to our urban
areas.
Through our Keep Farmers Farming program, we:
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Promote the importance of agriculture to our economy, heritage, and environment
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Support healthy local food for your communities
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Ensure continued funding for programs that protect agricultural lands
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Advance programs, policies, and resources to help current farmers - and new farmers - stay on the land and remain profitable.
Where Does Your Thanksgiving Dinner Come From
?
A recent survey by 1000 Friends of Maryland found that Maryland grows locally less than half of what we consume for the key foods normally found at a Thanksgiving dinner. This finding underscores the importance of keeping land in farming and out of sprawl development.
To produce 100% of our Thanksgiving foods locally, we need to plant over 13,800 more acres in broccoli, potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes and apples. We also need to raise over 2 million more 12 lbs. turkeys.
