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Council marks National Agriculture Day as speakers urge incubator farm and greater land access
Summary
At Montgomery County’s National Agriculture Day event, farmers and nonprofit advocates thanked county support for the Ag Reserve and urged the council to designate land and create an incubator farm to expand access for beginning and small organic farmers.
Montgomery County Council members and local farmers gathered at the council’s March session to mark National Agriculture Day and spotlight the county’s Ag Reserve, with speakers urging new steps to expand land access for beginning farmers.
Councilmember Balcom welcomed farmers and said the Ag Reserve is both an environmental asset and an economic driver for the county, citing the proclamation’s figures that agriculture contributes more than $280,000,000 annually and that the county has more than 70,000 acres of agriculturally assessed land and roughly 583 farms employing over 10,000 people. The council read and signed a proclamation recognizing National Agriculture Day.
Chris Miller of Lone Oak Farm Brewery thanked the council and county agencies — including the Office of Agriculture and the Soil Conservation District — saying that economic opportunity enables land preservation and the continuation of farm operations.
Trofina Chote, who identified herself as a community organizer and said she is stepping into full-time work with AvriThrive (transcript also references Afrathive/Avri Thrive in variant spellings), described growing up farming in Kenya and told the council that land access remains the most pressing barrier for beginning farmers. She urged the county to designate land for an incubator farm where farmers could receive training, obtain small parcel leases, and develop sustainable businesses. Chote also said the county’s Department of Parks holds leasable acreage that could be used more intentionally to support small organic producers.
Charles Jotic (introduced during the event) and other community participants described partnerships between nonprofit organizations and the county’s Office of Food Systems and Resilience; Chote praised that office’s technical-assistance work and asked the council to act to ensure small farmers can access land, training and markets.
The proclamations and public testimony will inform the council’s ongoing work around food systems and the county’s agricultural policies; the Council moved on to general business after the presentation.
