Conduit Street Reports on New Ag Grant Program & New Ag Director at AAEDC

December 15, 2023

Conduit Street, the official blog of the Maryland Association of Counties, reported on AAEDC’s announcement of the Agricultural Business Improvement Grant (ABIG) program and the appointment of Shelley Garrett as the organization’s Agriculture Business Development Director:

Anne Arundel EDC Launches New Grant Program for Farm-Based Businesses, Announces New Ag Director

The blog post included details on the grant program, which will provide matching grants of up to $10,000 to farm-based business owners to grow their operations in Anne Arundel County, as well as the following commentary from Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman, AAEDC President and CEO Amy Gowan, and Garrett:

“The Agricultural Business Improvement Grant program will help ensure that farm-based businesses in the county can continue to succeed and grow,” said County Executive Pittman. “AAEDC has supported farmers in Anne Arundel County for thirty years, and Shelley Garrett has the expertise and local knowledge to lead these efforts into the future.”

“While AAEDC has historically provided matching grants for agricultural businesses, we listened to feedback from the farming community and revamped the program to better meet their needs,” said Gowan. “The new ABIG program offers larger grant awards and inspires farm-based business owners to invest in impactful projects that will help them significantly grow their operations.”

“I’m thrilled to be joining AAEDC at such an important time for agriculture in Anne Arundel County,” said Garrett. “I know firsthand that if we want farmers to continue farming, we need to provide them with programs that will help them succeed and grow in a modern economy. I look forward to helping farmers access these resources, as well as developing new ones, as part of the AAEDC team.”

It also included several paragraphs outlining policy developments related to the use of agricultural land:

Counties are interested in promoting agricultural tourism to support the agricultural industry. Agritourism can be a means to keeping farms profitable during times of low production, and it offers opportunities to highlight Maryland counties’ unique agrarian assets.

Currently, state law creates a special statutory scheme for assessing land subject to active agricultural use. This exception sets the value of that land at a “use value” rather than its actual market value under highest and best use, specifically to “encourage farming activities to … maintain a readily available source of food and dairy products close to the metropolitan areas of the State.” (See Tax-Property, §8- 209(a)).

Recent legislation nominally sought to extend this similar assessment to improvements on agricultural land even when they support higher intensity uses with some nexus to agriculture. Doing so would slash the assessable base by billions of dollars, jeopardizing limited funds for public schools, health, infrastructure, public safety, and other essential services.

As previously reported on Conduit Street, MACo continues to work with the General Assembly to hone a balanced policy that assesses active agricultural land with its historic preference, reinforces that locally approved value-added agricultural activities should not jeopardize that status, and grants local governments clear tools to create tax incentives for commercial or other activities that are ancillary to active farmlands.

More information and the application for the Agricultural Business Improvement Grant can be found here.

What's Up? Media Covers AAEDC Announcement of New Ag Grant Program & New Ag Director »