Mo-Co Alliance
  • Home
  • About Us
    • What We Do
    • A Brief History
    • Board & AC
    • Staff & Volunteers
    • Contact
    • Buy MCA Gear
  • About Ag Reserve
    • History of the Ag Reserve
    • Benefits of the Ag Reserve
    • Farm Facts
    • Threats to the Ag Reserve
    • A Place with Purpose
  • News
  • Events
    • Local Events
    • Growing Legacy
    • Royce Hanson Award
    • Ride for Reserve
  • Support Local
    • Agricultural Guide
    • Local Food Connection
    • Good Fences Grant
    • Community Supported Agriculture
    • Restaurants & Retail
    • Artists of the Reserve
  • Community Resources
    • Land Link >
      • Labor Link
    • PLENTY Magazine
    • Solar Resources
    • Producer's Resources
    • Directory of Local Services
    • Friends of Ten Mile Creek
    • Well and Septic Resources
    • Re-leaf the Reserve
    • Agriculture Education
  • Membership
    • Sponsors and Partners

News

Non-Ag Uses Inhibit MoCo's Next Gen Farmers

7/10/2020

 
We are proud to report that Land Link has made another match! 2 acres in Poolesville is now being farmed by the Cozzi Family Farm! Will and Alicia needed more space for their growing poultry business. On a meeting with another potential landowner match, they met Jared who started Wildflower Farm in Dickerson after a successful Land Link match last year. Now both farms are among the vendors at the Cozzi Family Farm Co-Op market each weekend in Poolesville (10-2 Sat +Sun at Basset's). Despite the Ag Reserve's local food production, it is in fact a food desert as the last grocery store closed some years ago. Like in urban areas, farmers markets can bridge the gap when full service groceries are not available.  
We celebrate every Land Link match and the landowners who join the program to lease their land, but another issue MCA is working on now could have real effects on the amount of acreage that is available to get these new and expanding farmers growing.

ZTA 20-01 is proposing 1800 acres of industrial solar be allowed in the Ag Reserve with no protections for prime soils/forests/water quality and no stipulations that the energy stays local.

Among many deleterious impacts of this ZTA, one is a chilling effect on leasing to these new farmers. In comparing the income generated by industrial scale solar to lease income from a table crop producer, there is no contest. When large scale solar is allowed in the Ag Reserve, old farmers are priced off the land and new farmers are completely shut out in the only part of the County set aside for farming.  Please take two minutes to take action.
Take Action
This becomes an equity issue. As reported in the Washington Post profile of Dodo Farms, matched with an acre through Land Link in 2018, many of the farmers seeking land through Land Link represent demographics that are currently not well represented in local farming. Currently, farmers on the Land Link site looking for land include a family of Syrian refugees, immigrants from a number of different countries and a little more than half of land seekers are women and People of Color. As Woody Woodroof of Red Wiggler Farm said in our Growing Legacy film, an acre of farmland is already out of reach for many in Montgomery County, despite one-third of the county being set aside for this purpose. This was the impetus for starting our Land Link program that has led to the 500+ acres of land we have matched so far. Non-Ag uses being permitted in the Ag Reserve make these matches harder to come by.
Picture
Land Link has more in common with another MCA program, Re-Leaf the Reserve, than we previously realized. Much like the acres of tree plantings we have done so far, we aren't planting a certain number of trees, we are planting a forest. Humans are learning much more about how the trees of the forest are connected by an intricate web of mycelium, a network of fungal strands. The mycelium form links between each tree in the forest and pass resources between them as you can see in this stunning video.  

​
To truly have an impact on the wider food system, it is these lateral connections that need to form just like the Co-Op market, but first we need to grow the next generation of farmers. Industrial solar is not an agricultural use and would take land out of production now and in the future. Again - please take two minutes to take action here. 

Comments are closed.
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Action
    Barnesville Oaks/Greentree
    Bike
    Climate Change
    CSA
    Development
    Education
    Energy
    Events
    Fun!
    Growing Legacy
    Land Link
    Local Food
    Master Plan Update
    Mega Church
    Montgomery Council
    News
    Open Space
    Outer Beltway
    Parks
    Planning
    Potomac Bridge
    Racial Justice
    Recent Accomplishments
    Recipes
    Reducing Waste
    Regenerative Ag
    Releaf
    Rocklands
    Rural Schools
    Sewer
    Solar
    Take Action Now
    Ten Mile Creek
    Thrive 2050
    Transporation
    Water

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2012
    September 2012
    November 2010
    October 2010

ABOUT US
What We Do
A Brief History
Board & AC
Staff & Volunteers
Contact
​​Buy MCA Gear
ABOUT Ag RESERVE
History of the Ag
Benefits of the Ag
Farm Facts
Threats to the Ag
​A Place with Purpose
NEWS
EVENTS
Local Events
Growing Legacy
Royce Hanson Award
SUPPORT LOCAL
Ag Guide
Local Food Connection
Community Supported Agriculture
Restaurants & Retail
​Artists of the Reserve
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
​Land Link
Producer's Resources
Directory of Services
Picture
Montgomery Countryside Alliance
P.O Box 24, Poolesville, MD  20837
301-461-9831  •  ​info@mocoalliance.org
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
MCA is proud to announce that we have been recognized for a third time as one of the best small charities in the D.C. region by Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington. A panel of 110 expert reviewers from area foundations, corporate giving programs, and peer non-profit organizations evaluated 270 applications.

​MCA is known as an effective and innovative non-profit whose efforts to preserve and promote Montgomery County’s nationally recognized 93,000 acre Ag Reserve have brought increased public and governmental support of local food production and farmland and open space preservation. Most importantly, MCA’s efforts are putting more farmers on the ground and keeping them there.
COPYRIGHT © MONTGOMERY COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE 2008