09-25-2024 Primetime - Flipbook - Page 15
A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Wednesday, September 25, 2024 15
students for workforce demand of the broadly
defined fermentation industries that include
beverages, vegetable foods, dairy foods and
biotechnology industries.
Coale points out, “It includes biosecurity,
preventing biological incursions, and preserving foods to prevent food-borne illnesses. And
new populations bring an influx of new foods,
many of which are made using fermentation.
Then there are the ones we are most familiar
with: wine, beer, and chocolate.”
Chocolate? Yes. An article in Scientific
American is titled “Chocolate’s Secret
Ingredient Is Fermenting Microbes.” The subhead reads “Underneath the shiny wrapper, a
chocolate bunny is a fermented food.”
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
“As you can see, the Department of
Agriculture is intrinsic to the success of our
state,” Atticks says. “We look at our purview
as having three legs: profitability for farmers,
cracking the food insecurity problem and conservation. It’s good to have ambitious goals.
Here are a few.
“When it comes to profitability, our farmers are within two to three hours of major
markets, which means they have a lot of
marketing opportunities for self-saleable products. Consequently, most of our department’s
constituents have at least a partial value add.
“We’d like to rethink selling Maryland agriculture to people who need it but can’t afford it,
such as food assistance programs like SNAP
(Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)
or food deserts. We have the products; we just
need better ways to get it to them. And how
do we teach more people about farmers markets. There are more each year, but many in
our population don’t know how to shop there,
to plan ahead, to take advantage of seasonal
offerings. If COVID taught us anything, it’s that
we have to be self-reliant, to support each
other.
“Another area we are tackling is growing sustainably while keeping conservation
in mind. We should reintegrate old concepts
to be profitable. A farmer is thinking, ‘the
more fertilizer I put down, the more my costs
increase.’ There is science to help us with this,
to let the soil, the microbiome, and ecology
preserve the soil. So, we focus on the ecosystem. And the farmer wins with more yield
per acre.
“Maryland has an advanced bee inspection program, keeping colonies healthy. Too
many wild honey bees die due to parasitic
Creative value add
Depending on the size of the farm
and what crops are grown, here are
some items that can be processed on
the farm, increasing the value of the
original crop. For example, if you have
cows, you could produce cheese,
yogurt, butter, ice cream (yes, good
all year round!).
Value-added Products /
On-farm Processing
• Cheese and yogurt
• Cider, sauce and other
apple products
• Confections and candles
• Corn snack foods
• Crafts
• Dried flowers, e.g., cultivated,
arid, wild
• Dried fruits
• Fresh or stone-ground grains
• Furniture, e.g. outdoor chairs,
picnic tables
• Honey and beeswax products
• Meat processing, e.g., jerky
• Pies
• Sauces, salsa, etc.
• Sawmill
• Seasonal wreaths
• Soapmaking
• Tanning hides
• Toys from wood
• Beverages
• Wheatweaving
• Winemaking
• Wool processing and spinning
Advanced hearing Healthcare
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Cardiac Patients • Diabetics • Cancer Survivors
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mites. Now, we have well-trained sniffer dogs
that detect mites and other bacteria that can
cause problems. The dog stops at a hive
identifying it as one with problems, allowing
our team to be super-efficient in identifying
problems before they spread.”
Atticks is a different Secretary of
Agriculture, looking for ways to help farmers
grow their revenue streams by thinking beyond
crops, to help them capture a larger share of
the consumer food dollar through innovative
product development and smarter marketing.
He’s an asset to our State agriculture business
segment and willing to work with those who
can contribute ideas and value. Long term, this
will benefit all of us in Maryland.
back, and can lead to hearing loss, ringing in the ear and diziness.
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