The UMB Pulse Podcast
The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) is working to strengthen social impact and galvanize innovation. This season of “The UMB Pulse” podcast is featuring stories about how UMB is taking creative action to overcome barriers and solve social problems. Be sure to tune in – new episodes drop on the FIRST FRIDAY of the month! “The UMB Pulse” is produced by the UMB Office of Communications and Public Affairs. Co-hosted by Charles Schelle, lead social media specialist and Dana Rampolla, director of integrated marketing.
The UMB Pulse Podcast
Exploring Maryland's New Generation of Farmers with ALEI
In this episode of “The UMB Pulse” podcast, we are joined by Megan Todd, JD, managing director for the Agriculture Law Education Initiative (ALEI) at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, and Nia Nyamweya, founder and farm manager of Beauty Blooms Farm in Montgomery County.
They discuss the new generation of Maryland farming, the role of ALEI in aiding Maryland farmers, and the nuances and challenges new farmers face. Maryland’s new face of farming is ethnically diverse, growing food and vegetables that reflect their cultures, especially from Africa, Asian, and Latin American countries — all done on small tracts of public land.
Todd shares insights on how ALEI educates farmers on complex legal topics and collaborates with other institutions to provide comprehensive resources. Nyamweya shares her journey from nonprofit work to becoming a returning generation farmer and the innovative steps she has taken to overcome challenges in this emerging system. The conversation also explores the practical implications of farming regulations, the importance of community organizations, and the impact of local farming on cultural heritage.
ALEI is a University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State joint venture among Maryland Carey Law, the University of Maryland College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences.
In a bonus segment, Dana recaps holiday events and drives at UMB including the Holiday Craft Fair, Student Food Pantry Drive and the Christmas Store.
Listen to The UMB Pulse on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you like to listen. The UMB Pulse is also now on YouTube.
Visit our website at umaryland.edu/pulse or email us at umbpulse@umaryland.edu.
It's December. We've had a bit of a chill. I have my winter sweater on with some snowflakes. I'm wishing for more snow. We had a little bit of flurries when we were recording this today. The holiday season is here and it's a great time to visit farms with all the wreaths, the trees, maybe it's the jams, the jellies, the oranges that you get. I know my sisters love to seek out some of those homemade jellies from the farm stands. You can just find a little bit of anything at a farmer's market, produce stand or whole operating farm.
Dana Rampolla:I agree with you. I love those homemade items that maybe I haven't made, but I know that someone local has that's incorporating either local produce or local herbs, that sort of thing. And there aren't a lot of those that are around. You just have to seek them out, but it's a nice opportunity to give something that's a little more personal than the big box store kind of
Charles Schelle:stuff. And they're not just incidentally made, it takes a lot of hard work to even get that final product. You have to grow it in the ground, right? And so we're going to have a really cool conversation today about a new look of Maryland farming. There's this entire new generation of farmers who are not just those who inherited that generational farm. with those, acres and acres of soybeans, right? And you're going to hear about a culturally diverse farming on small plots of land where they're growing the produce and they're trying to make the end product. So we're going to talk to Megan Todd, she's the Managing Director for the Agricultural Law Education Initiative for Maryland Cary Law here at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, about how this program works, what ALEI does, as we'll refer to the program. And we're also going to talk to Nia Nyamwea, she's the founder and farm manager of Beauty Blooms and you'll hear all about the things that she had to go through just to farm on a very small plot of land and the things that she still has to contend with.
Dana Rampolla:And it'll be interesting to learn more about how she started from a tiny parcel of land. I think she talks about an 8th of an acre and then how that's grown and evolved. And I also Charles find that this whole topic is interesting because it really gives us a chance to share how UMB has made a commitment to Maryland and how we collaborate with not only University of Maryland, College Park, but also University of Maryland, Eastern Shore to really make a difference in Maryland. So we pride ourselves on sharing our changemaker stories and this one hits close to home, so let's get to it.
Charles Schelle:Hello, Megan. Hello, Nia. Thank you for joining us on the UMB Pulse.
Megan Todd:Hey, Charles. Great to be here. Thanks for inviting me. Thanks so much. Excited to be here.
Charles Schelle:We're here to talk about the new generation of Maryland farming and how ALEI helps that. But Megan, first explain to our listeners what ALEI does.
Megan Todd:Sure, I can try to do this in a nutshell for you. So ALEI stands for the Agriculture Law Education Initiative, and it's really in MPowering the State. It's a strategic partnership with the University of Maryland College Park and the University of Maryland Carey School of Law and also the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Campus as well. We have legal specialists at each campus, um, working both independently and together to create free legal resources for the farmers in Maryland. Um, And it really is just here as a service to help them really understand a lot of the legal topics and issues that stem from wanting to run a farm business. They're really, diverse and multifaceted and it depends a lot on the type of operation that the person is pursuing. But, we're here as a resource and free resource to help them understand what those issues are and how they can manage those risks associated with those potential legal liabilities and compliance requirements and permitting and all. The lovely details of the law. Yeah, and we're free. So we do educationally, a lot of workshops things like that.
Charles Schelle:All right. So you mentioned the three universities involved and it's part of this MPower umbrella partnership that we refer to, what are each of the roles when it comes to College Park, Maryland Carey Law and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore?
Megan Todd:Oh, that's a great question. So it's not that we each have different roles. So to speak, but the beauty of the collaboration is that together we can reach further and do more with the resources we have by collaborating because we each have different strengths, right? The College Park campus, very large, their School of Ag and Natural Resources with their extension program. So we work really closely with the state's extension educators as well And my role in the University of Maryland, Carey School of Law, we have that connection to Baltimore, some more urban growers in the state, and then the Eastern Shore campus is an historic 1890s school focused on The historically Black students and creating that campus and agricultural program out on the Eastern Shore. So we're able to really you think about it where we're physically located. We cover the whole state. We have a presence throughout the state. And when we work together for our website, we bring on to bring together our resources on the ALEI website and we host our annual conference every year in Annapolis. So it's really just a group effort. We focus in on what topics we find are relevant to the members of the state that we work with closely and just run with it from there.
Dana Rampolla:And so Maryland Carey Law offers students the chance to study business law, health law and environmental law. And ALEI is a way for students to wrap all those things together. So tell me, what does participation look like for the student?
Megan Todd:Thank you for that question. I'm really glad you asked because one of the key components or key missions of ALEI is to really get students involved and more aware of the agricultural issues that farmers do face, like the legal issues that farmers face. So we do offer internships every summer for both undergraduate students and law students. Both independently. So my colleagues at College Park are Paul Goringer and Elizabeth Domeney. And they host They can host law student interns on their campus, as well as interns, during the semester, um, for me, for, I can also do law student research assistance during the semester just to help with some of our, with our resources, our research, our presentations that we do I'll be hiring a legal fellow, a recent graduate actually in January, so I look to aquaculture to land access to nutrition benefits. That was just from last summer, and that's only half of the projects they covered. If any, if there's any undergraduate student or law student who is interested in learning more about, like, how the farming community navigates. The laws and regulations of the state and federal government. We definitely have opportunities for them and they can reach out to me. They can go to our webpage. Yeah, we try to work with at least a handful of students every year.
Dana Rampolla:And you said that works to educate the farmers and the policy makers. 1 of the ways you do that is through workshops. You mentioned you just had a conference just that was just a week or 2 ago. So what kind of workshops and webinars do you offer?
Megan Todd:It changes from year to year. I would say a lot of the work that we do is grant funded. So we often have a particular topic in mind that we want to do education on, something that we see that there's a need for and we organize a series over two to three years. We organize a series of workshops. So that so this year, my topic would be increasing the knowledge for agricultural service providers. So that means extension agents and county economic development officers about federal nutrition benefit programs and how farmers can become authorized to accept money from those shoppers. We also do pretty frequently workshops on agricultural leasing, just basics of leasing and conservation leasing practices. Because you'd be surprised how many people are still on a handshake lease. And those types of things are very important, written contracts. We have a lot of topics. Are very important topic that we get to ask to present on pretty often. Colleagues at College Park present on a state planning pretty frequently accessing land. Um, Is something that we do. So we have got a lot of topics. We do webinars on different topics every August as well. I do an August webinar series where I take a month to focus in on one topic over four weeks and do like a deep dive, um, and invite experts. To come and talk and give us more knowledge on like permitting requirements and who to talk to you in local government. I Hope that answers your question. It varies every year, but we also have this set type of topics that we can revisit. We always get asked to come and present pretty regularly at different conferences and winter workshops.
Dana Rampolla:Okay, that sounds good. And so how would I find out about this or sign up and is it just for existing farmers and agribusiness people? Or if I'm new, can I join as well?
Megan Todd:Yeah, so anybody who's interested can attend one of our webinars, like whether they're farming or not, whether they're gardening or farming as a hobby or, whether they're commercial farming or they're just farming for nonprofit and to donate, right? So whatever level of interest, anybody can sign up for our workshops or webinars. The ones that we host through ALEI, we usually will post on our webpage. We have a calendar and events, upcoming events, where we post things. We have a quarterly newsletter that we send out and we usually include the links to our upcoming events there as well. And you can sign up for the quarterly newsletter on our webpage. For the farmers out there we also post all of our events and workshops on the county extension web page calendar. So there's a state extension and each county has their own calendar too. So we try to get on. We try to get it on all those calendars. It's hard sometimes. And then when we do workshops or panels at conferences whichever organization that they're interested in, like if it's future harvest shore rivers, things like that, and they can connect through those web pages as well to find out what work we've done.
Charles Schelle:You mentioned your website a couple of times. What's your website address?
Megan Todd:Www. umaglaw. org.
Charles Schelle:Easy to remember. Now as Dana asked about, people new to farming, you help them too. You help people from all generations, from your heritage farmers to people who are new. Maryland is a cultural melting pot. That's definitely extended to farming. And we have a new farmer, relatively new here today with Nia and we'll get to Nia in a second, but in a nutshell, at a high level, Megan, who are these new generations of farmers?
Megan Todd:I think one of the things that I've noticed in my 5 years with ALEI so far is that, um, farmers are very diverse. They're innovative people and historically, the USDA census data does show us that most farmers are still older men, gentlemen, but there's definitely a transition toward younger folks trying to come in into farming. One of the biggest issues associated with. Yeah. Allowing younger folks who are maybe don't have quite as much access to capital, right? Or they haven't inherited a farm, a family farm is land access. And so that's just simply one of the issues that has been coming up for me a lot lately and just trying to help people understand the different ways that they can access land if they don't have a very large plot in their family. So definitely a lot of up and coming people from diverse backgrounds trying to get into farming, and they don't, they're not necessarily looking for 20 acres. They're happy to do it on a small plot you know, get started small, right? Small steps and then grow and see how they like it. So that's what I've been noticing in my time with ALEI.
Charles Schelle:Nia, we have Nia here from Beauty Blooms Farm, and that wasn't your, first iteration of farming. You got to that chance. So let's back up. Tell us about yourself your background, and how you got into farming.
Nia Nyamweya:Yeah, absolutely. So I began Beauty Blooms Farm in 2020, and before that I was working in non profit work and community organizing in D. C., and the last kind of piece of work I was working on was healing justice, and that's a Term used by folks in the South who were community organizers asking civil rights leaders, how do you stay resilient? What are our traditional practices to keep joy and hope alive? And through that, I found out about this great community of local farmers farming. And then I also learned about Future Harvest and their beginning farmer training program. I joined that and just loved it. So I call myself a returning generation farmer because both sets of my grandparents were farmers. My mom's side here in the states and my dad's from Kenya, so he grew up farming in Kenya. So I really wanted to farm while connecting to my cultural roots and also have farming as a social change, social justice practice. Because a bunch of Culturally important crops may not be available in grocery stores, but growing them fresh locally with natural green methods was something important to me. So the farm's mission is to celebrate cultural heritage through food and grow in Montgomery County and Damascus on six acres.
Charles Schelle:So what type of crops are you growing? You mentioned about the culturally significant crops and then, what kind of dishes would you make with them or would you just eat them out of the ground?
Nia Nyamweya:That is the fun thing about for me is sometimes you can just pick a pea off some vine and eat it. But for cultural important crops, African heritage crops, the dark leafy greens are a staple. So heirloom collards, kale. And then some dishes are also unique in that. Like bean leaves, cowpea leaves are a staple in Kenyan diet. It's called kunde. And so you grow the bean, but you don't grow it for the bean itself. You grow it for the leaves. And so you can just saute that with onions, garlic, super simple and delicious. Hot peppers is another staple. So cayenne peppers, berber peppers, scotch bonnet. Eggplants, okra. So similar varieties, just heirloom varieties that have a lot of cultural importance and have been used for generations.
Charles Schelle:And I'm sure you're finding a strong population in Maryland who are seeking out these crops, right?
Nia Nyamweya:Yeah, absolutely. That's the great thing about the D. C. metro area is that we're so racially and ethnically diverse that there's a good amount of folks African heritage, but also from Asian and Latino heritage that also eat some of the similar crops. So it's a great place to grow culturally important
Charles Schelle:crops. You mentioned about. The land and being able to grow and I understand there are different types of agricultural reserves and programs in Maryland where you can get access. So how did you find the land? Because you're not looking just for a small patch of grass that you could go into your backyard. You're looking for something a little bit more organized.
Nia Nyamweya:Yeah, that's right. And initially I started through the lane link program through Montgomery Countryside Alliance and that was so great because I did start on a smaller plot and eighth acre and that was a really great way to get started in farming but have a manageable space. And for my current land, I Approached state park Rangers and built a relationship with them over the past two years. So Maryland State through Department of Natural Resources leases to farmers, but it's primarily corn and soybean farmers, and they grow for grain. So I approached the park Rangers and the good thing is that we shared values and conservation. Regenerating the soil. And so that was really my foot in is that I proposed that I would regenerate the soil. So we cover crop five acres, increasing organic matter, building topsoil health and then actively cultivate the vegetables on one acre. But through building the relationship with Department of Natural Resources, ensuring those values, that's how I got access to this
Charles Schelle:land. And which park was that again?
I'm
Nia Nyamweya:in the Patuxent
Megan Todd:River State Park.
Charles Schelle:Okay. Wow. I, you can grow anywhere. Wow.
That's
Megan Todd:right. Yeah. And
Nia Nyamweya:it spans across multiple counties, but I'm right on the edge in Damascus and Montgomery County.
Dana Rampolla:That's so interesting. Megan, can you tell us a little bit if, so say I'm somebody like Nia in that situation starting out, what types of programs would specifically help me that ALEI offers?
Megan Todd:Oh, that's interesting question. And I would say the ALEI. I don't think we would necessarily be the sole person to go to. To get access to different state lands. We did hear at the conference a few weeks ago that Charles mentioned our annual conference. We were this year. We were actually able to have the three secretaries for Department of Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture and Department of Environment show up. And one of the points that the Department of Natural Resources secretary mentioned Secretary Kurtz. Is that they'll be working more collaboratively with MDA to, to increase access to state park land for farming purposes. So allowing more programs like we have one in Prince George's County, it's called Eco City Farms, where they have a plot of land from the county parks department and they're able to break it up into quarter acre plots and lease those out to beginning farmers as a way to, for them, just like Nia mentioned, to Get started figure out what they want to grow, get used to managing the business and growing the business and then give them time to to have a track record as they look for access to a more permanent piece of land or a larger plot of land, because oftentimes, there, there's going to be a need to apply for funding. And so Marbinco is a great organization in the state of Maryland that, offers funding to farmers. But you might also see people that go to banks, farm credit banks, institutions to apply for funding for loans to buy the property and oftentimes you'll see, requirement of a business plan or a track record of successful sales over a number of years and having these programs like Eco City in Prince George's County and hopefully more across the state as the Department of Natural Resources works with MDA, they're able to provide that history of farming that allows them to then access that that lending or capital from Marbid Co or another bank. So that's part of it. And then, we work with, I work with, The growers and eco city farms and future harvest and extension to give them training on principles about leasing and land purchasing and you know that what's the process of buying land and if they want to, we'll talk about this a little bit, but if they want to start, um, have a farm stand. What do they have to look for in their zoning or their land code? If they want to build a structure, what permits do they need to go to through their county offices? And again, if they want to process it into a different product, they might need a commercial kitchen. So all of these different points in the process will require some sort of legal knowledge and understanding of contracts. And that's how we fit into the whole picture. We're not the only player. We're just like a very small part that we hope will help save farmers time and money and headaches down the line as they go through all of these processes.
Dana Rampolla:Yeah, so many different facets of production to think about that. It's not just growing that plant, but then what do you do with it afterwards? Which Nia, that kind of brings us back to you. So other than providing the land, what did the reserves and operations offer?
Nia Nyamweya:So for the most part, it's all on the farmer to come up with the infrastructure and that's something Megan touched on earlier, is as a young farmer of color who's just starting out, that access to capital can be a major barrier so that's why I'm really hopeful in terms of the state park or even ecocity farms and programs that do help you with that infrastructure, so providing a fence. Providing a well. Those are really important in getting started in farming. And so I'm really hopeful that programs like that will continue to expand and help provide that infrastructure because currently it's solely on the farmer.
Dana Rampolla:So from a practical standpoint what did you do then once you got the land? Like, how did you move to that next step?
Nia Nyamweya:Yeah, so thankfully, my dad has been a landscaper for over 40 years. I've been using his tools and also his help a ton. He's been great and really supportive. So having him as someone to help out with the farm has been immense in terms of labor. The other piece is that We currently don't have access to water, so we have to pump through the local river and get really creative by necessity. Drive a 300 gallon tank down to the Patuxent State River, pump out 300 gallons and drive it back to the farm. But I would say that's where ALEI in terms of legal resources and knowing how much is capped in terms of farmers and how much you can take out of public Water sources each day. Knowing those parameters is helpful when you have to get creative on the farm to make it work.
Dana Rampolla:Who even knew all of those things, like I wouldn't have even known that you would tap into. Thank you for sharing that.
Charles Schelle:Yeah. Just literally almost like old time farming, like going to get buckets of water out of the river and hauling them shoulder and shoulder But now you're just doing with the giant water truck and just loading up and pumping it and it sounds, as you mentioned. The land is one part of it. You still need your equipment. Depending on the size of the land, maybe you can get by with maybe a tiller or something, but maybe some others, like you might have to go in on perhaps, a tractor, potentially a small tractor with either yourself or someone else.
Nia Nyamweya:Yeah, that's right. Thankfully, we have a really kind neighbor across from the state park that lets us use his New Holland tractor. The biggest piece of, yeah, it's been great. And we barter with hot peppers and bring him over some of those during the season And the biggest piece of equipment we have is a BCS walk behind tractor. So it has a flail mower. We have a compost spreader, which has been great because I'd have to get some friends. And with wheelbarrows to spread a compost on the farm. So yes, equipment's a major piece. And I would also say fencing, because there's a ton of deer in the area. Deer pressure's immense. So having a fence up and getting that put up is a big thing. And thankfully through Montgomery Countryside Alliance that runs the Land Link program, they have a partnership where if you are giving to the local food banks or selling to the local food banks, They'll partner with you in helping with fencing costs. So I, I would say that's another big piece of the farm journey is that it's been primarily wholesale to the capital area and Manna Food Center, food banks, and that's really where culturally important crops for folks who need access to food has been a really great partnership in the beginning of my farm journey.
Charles Schelle:Yeah. And as Megan alluded to a little bit earlier you have Just the growing part and all those challenges that you just mentioned about getting equipment and water and everything. But once you grow it, you got to sell it, right? And so there's the marketing, there's the business end of, of things. And so where maybe during your journey where you're like, okay, I need to find some resources and help to figure some of these things out to make my business a little bit smoother and eliminate some of these headaches.
Nia Nyamweya:I think that is actually a constant thing throughout the farming process. So the resources from ALEI or future harvest and organizations that serve farmers, I think are important throughout. So finding anywhere where you can learn more about telling your story, I think that's the piece about marketing is like why you want to farm. What is your passion behind it? What do you grow and sharing that is important. And I also think that reviving or reclaiming the history of African heritage crops and growing them here is another piece of that. I think finding those resources throughout that just help you get better because each year you're learning more, you're learning on the fly. And as you continue to improve those resources help throughout.
Dana Rampolla:So Nia, this education, then it's not strictly about growing produce or livestock or even oysters if we're on the Eastern Shore, farmers would have stands that could have sauces and jams and jellies and that sort of thing. And then Megan, that gets us into this whole other opportunity talking about agripreneurs for both business and law tell us a little bit about that piece of it
Megan Todd:Oh, yeah that's definitely true. I think farmers nowadays, um, it's a tough, it's tough market out there. And so farmers, especially local farmers are finding a large need to diversify their income streams. And so that often translates into value added agriculture is the term that we use in the state. It's been adopted. And so that includes agritourism activities. So like experiences on the farm. Think your pumpkin patches, petting zoos, corn mazes tasting rooms. Maybe some educational workshops on farms and then also value added processed foods. Baked goods, jams and jellies people have been doing like prepared meals with some of their foods like their local meats and produce. And so when you bring all of that into the scene, it's definitely gets more complicated legally and, risk wise, right? So two resources that we worked on that I worked on with ALEI recently are the legal guide to direct farm marketing for produce growers in the state, and that's sort of a survey of all the different types of legal issues that will pop up when you invite members of the public onto your farm for these experiences that are definitely valuable and needed to keep these businesses running. They need that extra income, right? They can't just make it on sales of produce alone. And it's a lot, you know, it's kind of like one way that one of my coworkers used to phrase it. It's like your farm is turning into an aisle at the grocery store. It's like that level of care that you owe to the guests that you invite onto your farm. So it's definitely something that people, farmers should be thinking about. And then on the terms of the value added processing. Or food production, right? That's a whole other thing, too. We have in Maryland, the regulatory scheme for value added foods is a little bit more complicated than some other of our neighboring states. We do have cottage food production, which does not require a license, but it's limited to a certain type of food and certain listed products. And so you don't want to get in trouble with the health department by making a food that's not on the cottage food license list without first getting your health license, your processing license. And that can be a complicated endeavor as well because we have licenses from the state level and also from the county health departments and what you make and where you want to sell it and the volume that you're selling will determine which office you go to apply for your permit. We have a resource that we put out. It's called actually, I have it right here next to me, adding value to specialty crops, regulatory decision trees for Maryland producers. That is a decision tree. Resource that a farmer can go to it. They say, I want to make a jam and jelly. So they go to the table for jam and jelly and look at the ask the questions that will determine where they need to go to apply for their permit. And what are the documents they need to prepare in advance? And, what are the plans they need to have in place? and the recipes and all that stuff. So hopefully it's a resource that will streamline that process for growers instead of having them, you know, like I did during the creation of that resource, go to the health department webpage and see lots of links and be very confused and not know what, what applied to which operation at first. Yeah, we do some of that, like that legwork in between to make it easier for the growers.
Dana Rampolla:Yeah, that's interesting. I had a sister in law a number of years ago who tried to do a cottage business where she made some jams and jellies and granola and things. And it, it was before any of these resources and she got very, so caught up in it all and not understanding that she wound up, not, it didn't become a thing. She got pretty far into it, but then it was just a lot to navigate what the legalities were. Having a kitchen that was whatever you have to do with a special kitchen to get it qualified as that for business.
Megan Todd:Yeah. And I would say I've, I've talked to a lot of people in, who are involved in education for agriculture in the state. And it's something that it's a known issue. Like it can be stifling to businesses, people have an idea and they get really excited about it and they go to look like, how do I do this? And it just seems really overwhelming, and it just either kills their desire, or they try to go after it for a while, and then they just keep reading, meeting roadblock after roadblock. And so that is, I think, one of ALEI's important roles is not just with the farmers, but working with the local county departments and officials to help them understand what are the struggles the farmers are going through, and what are they trying to accomplish, and trying to figure out how we can let them connect to each other in a way that allows those ideas to, to thrive and flourish and contribute to our economy and our food security.
Charles Schelle:Nia with all the hoops that we've just listened, and I'm sure you had to jump through a lot on your own. What advice would you give to other new farmers similar to you about things they maybe should be prepared to face?
Nia Nyamweya:Yeah, that's a great question. I would say, first, take advantage as much as you can of the resources that are available. So, ALEI, Future Harvest, other farm serving organizations, that's where I truly learn the most. And also having on farm events and learning from farmers that are growing themselves were crucial to me. And when I first was learning about making the transition to farm, and then the second thing I would say is, Don't think about it too much. I think if you reflect on all the barriers and all the challenges, you're going to be thinking about that forever. So what's actually worked for me and what I recommend is take action first to try it out first with whatever space, whatever time and capacity you have, and then go from there because you'll learn as you go. Each season is different. Each weather pattern is different. So just take action first and go for it.
Charles Schelle:And on the other side of the policy side, and you have a platform here now, is there like a friction point that you're still facing or you're seeing other new farmers face that you think that the policy or maybe regulation could be improved? And what would that look like?
Nia Nyamweya:Yeah, absolutely. So it essentially took two years to secure a long term lease. So currently the lease terms are five years, but if you're growing an operation, it takes a lot longer to improve the soil and learn over those five years. So long term lease stability is crucial for farmers. So currently just got approved last month for a 10 year lease with the option to extend for 15. And I would say that is So important and so needed because if it's a two or five year lease, your land unstable, essentially, you don't know if you have to be looking for land while you're actively farming. You don't know if the equity and the compost and all the time and love you're putting into that farm, you'll then have to start up at a new place in the next couple of years. So long term leases are so important for farmers to build stability and to really get. Yeah. Just long term leases are really important for stability and farming.
Charles Schelle:I was going to say I can't imagine the stress of two years because you're so weather dependent, right? And so you could have a summer of, torrential downpours and flooding, or you could have an extended drought and there goes one year of my two years and I'm a little bit out of luck. So thanks. Thanks for sharing that. Yeah. Megan, it's really interesting to hear all of this and the new wave, whether it's, a Kenyan background, it could be a Caribbean background, or, Latin America, Central America, and all these things are happening in the background. But at what point did ALEI learn about this trend? And how do you get involved in these types of issues?
Megan Todd:That, that's. It's hard. I feel I've joined ali five years ago. And the way that we learn about things really the best part of my job is when we get to go to conferences that are for farmers and I get to meet the farmers and then talk to them about their issues and get feedback from them. This talk was really great. And here's my story. Here's what I've been experiencing. And so we really do draw a lot of our inspiration and plan our future projects, our research projects, our grant projects, our workshops, based on what we've been hearing from the farmers and are in the state when we attend these workshops and these these conferences and things like that. So that's the best part of my job. That's how we really figure out which direction to start going on our projects in the future. Yeah. And so this issue with land stability and land access, so I think this has been an issue for a very long time, predating my time with ALEI and it's just been like a topic of constant conversation whenever we, I go to conferences or talk to other service providers, it's like Land is very expensive now. And then we saw, during the pandemic, during COVID 19, and there was, a different, a difference in buying trends, but people were trying to get out into the country. And very wealthy people were buying, country, rural plots, traditionally agricultural land on a cash offers above offer sight unseen oftentimes. And so it was very frustrating for everybody involved in the, in farming, I think, to realize that. We're are we're losing some resources that really should be focused and reserved for agricultural activities and increasing our local food system resiliency, as we also saw during epidemic was a very big issue. I would say the pandemic is really when we shine the light on the issue of land access and affordability on that particular topic. And another topic that has been really big and a point of conversation is the agritourism definitions and link limitations that because they're all very county specific. And so depending on which county you're in, what's allowed for agritourism operations is going to be varied. And so trying to reach a better consensus or understanding across the state or even locally about what's allowed and communicating that with the growers in, the region is very important. Again, because like I mentioned, a lot of growers rely on that income. To keep their farm going.
Dana Rampolla:I was going to also ask if there's any hot topics that ALEI is researching new things we should be looking forward to.
Megan Todd:Yeah, so I just mentioned two of them. bUt I think that we've learned anything over this past 30 minutes or so. It's farming is very nuanced, right? And very complicated. So some other topics I also mentioned about increasing access to or local access points for, Shoppers who use federal nutrition benefit programs. So getting farmers educated about what those programs are and what the requirements are to become an authorized vendor. So we have, a greater market for those shoppers. We also see a lot of research for agrivoltaics, renewable energy portfolio in the state is very aggressive and ambitious. And so that's going to require. Potentially transitioning some farmland or, installing solar panels on farmland. And that's a point of tension and research. And how can we harmonize the two uses and to reach our goals for renewable energy and for local foods? Aquaculture is always a very popular topic as well, because we have the Chesapeake Bay region and our water quality is very important to us. And I think we've made really great strides in the state of Maryland. To reduce our nutrient loading in the bay which no, therefore goes to increase the size and health of our aquaculture and watermen markets as well. It's a heritage for the state. And what other issues are there besides everything. I feel like everything is like a hot topic. It's like very interesting and I love the work I do. It changes from day to day. Oftentimes marketing issues like Nia mentioned, marketing. If you're a farmer, I feel like they're just such smart and hardworking people and they have to wear so many hats. And so another one is like marketing activities and how do you, you know, Go on social media and make sure you're complying with FTC rules, because I think FTC is starting to crack down a little bit more on influencers and, the types of claims that you make when you are promoting your products. And just as a solo, business owner or just have a partner or a few employees, it's really easy to kind of misstep if you're not using like an ad, advertising contractor or something like that.
Charles Schelle:It's a tough world. Nia. Speaking of marketing, so where can people find you? And what do you sell, in person or online even?
Nia Nyamweya:Yeah, absolutely. So for the past two seasons, we've been at Crossroads Market in Tacoma Park. It's a Wednesday market, and we're still figuring out market season for next year. So you can follow any updates at beautyblooms. org, which is our website, or follow on Instagram at beautybloomsfarm.
Charles Schelle:Great. And Megan, how can people learn more and sign up for ALEI events or get in contact with you?
Megan Todd:So the best way is to go to our webpage. It's www. umaglaw. org. And you can subscribe to our quarterly newsletter or if anyone wants to, they can email me directly. My email address is M O T O D D at law. umaryland. edu.
Charles Schelle:And we'll make sure to have all of that in our show notes as well, for anyone listening or watching on YouTube. And you're all across the state. So do you have any tour stops in the works going around Maryland?
Megan Todd:So yeah, I think I'll be presenting on value added agri production for Ecocity Farms mid December. I'll be at the Future Harvest Conference in early January presenting on leasing, um, And we'll be doing our workshops for the County Agricultural Marketing Producers professionals sometime in February. We also have our annual grower produce safety rule trainings that will be happening in February this year, and we're going to be doing two in person. One will be in Baltimore County. And the second will be on the Eastern Shore, very likely at the Packing House facility that's that opened up in Cambridge and then we'll do a virtual grower training as well. And those are for any growers out there who are listening. Those are usually$35 to register for, which is a great deal because we get supplements from MDA funding. Typically it could be a few hundred dollars through other places to take that training. And then, just keep an eye out for a webinar series in August coming out. I'll do a bonus one in April as well. Just go to our webpage, look at our calendar. We've got, I'm not the only one doing work for ALEI. We've got Paul and Nicole Cook at Eastern Shore too, like doing their own activities and workshops. We've got tax and estate planning, all kinds of stuff.
Charles Schelle:A little bit of everything. Before we wrap, Dana, do you have anything else that you wanted to ask?
Dana Rampolla:No, I'm doing that bad girl thing though. I'm sitting here like stalking Nia's Instagram while I'm listening with the other ear. And so if our listeners are interested, if nothing more than to get a beautiful array of just really colorful images reflecting the farm and what she's growing, I suggest you, you take a peek. So congratulations, Nia. It looks like you're doing great stuff out there.
Nia Nyamweya:Thank you, Dana. I appreciate that.
Charles Schelle:Yeah, I saw the dried flowers on there looked amazing. So with that thank you, Nia. Thank you, Megan, for your time and have a great holiday season. This is a, giving time of year and no, we're not exactly Santa and the elves, but Dana, I'm sure there are plenty of ways for people to make a holiday nice and cheery and bright.
Dana Rampolla:Yeah. There's lots of great ways to give through UMB and to purchase through UMB and support some of our community partners this holiday season. So let's talk about what's starting next week. We'll have the UMB Holiday Craft Fair. That's on Wednesday, December 6th. It's from 11 a. m. until 2 p. m., and it's in the Campus Center Elm Ballrooms, which are on the second floor. All you need to bring is an ID. Our community members are welcome, as well as our, our UMB folks. Just bring an ID, and that gives you access. Lots and lots of vendors. Have you ever gone to that event, Charles?
Charles Schelle:Yeah, I went last year. I think it was our first big one after the pandemic. And it was great to see, I think there were like, at least one, two, three, four, maybe five or six rows of vendors. At least it seemed and just every table was filled with all sorts of cool gifts that, that you can buy for your family and friends.
Dana Rampolla:Yep, for sure. And if you'd like to give to someone other than just your own family, think about giving to people within our UMB community. We have something called the Student Food Pantry, which Courtney Jones Carney was speaking about recently. She's the director of the Intercultural Center, and she was saying, which I did not realize, that student hunger in graduate and professional schools can be really difficult. And it exists that it exists to a large scale, but there are things that we can do here to help right at UMB. She emphasized that they get a lot of grant funding, but also donations are really important for the support of the student pantry. Each food kit costs ten dollars to create, and it provides four servings of food per recipient and together we can make a difference. We're going to leave the donation link in our show notes. And then on the other hand, if you're. Interested in helping children and giving right back to the Baltimore community who we partner with on a lot of events and occasions, you can make a donation to the Office of Community Engagement, UMB's Office of Community Engagement. And what they do is they partner with the University of Maryland Medical Center, the Foundry Church, and our own UMB Staff Senate. And they put on a Christmas store and it's for local families and you can provide a donation or an actual gift through one of their Amazon registry or Target registry sites to really make a difference in a family's life here in Baltimore. So that CEC Christmas store is open on December 15th and 16th from 11 a. m. to 4 p. m. And I think you can pretty much donate right up until The day before and again, those links will be in, in our show notes. And it's not just gifts, but also cash donations as well.
Charles Schelle:You can even volunteer at the store as well to help be the, shopping assistants and these families, they just have, the biggest smiles on their face to, to see all of these toys and gifts available at a super low cost.
Dana Rampolla:So whether you're purchasing something through one of our ALEI connected farmers or merchants or just giving to the community, enjoy this holiday season, make a difference wherever you are.
Charles Schelle:That was a great wrap up to send us right into the holiday break. We'll see everybody on the UMB Pulse in 2024.
