The Agriculture Law Education Initiative held its seventh annual conference November 17-18. The Agricultural and Environmental Law Conference, geared toward stakeholders from Maryland’s agriculture, environmental and legal fields, attracted more than 130 attendees who participated virtually due to pandemic precautions.
“This is the second year that we’ve hosted the conference online,” said Nicole Cook, an environmental and agricultural faculty legal specialist with UMES Extension and a member of ALEI’s working group. “We hope to be able to return to an in-person event next year, but being virtual has had the benefit of allowing some people, particularly farmers, to attend the conference when they normally wouldn’t be able to spend an entire day in Annapolis.”
This year’s conference, she said, featured six expert panels that covered topics related to recent changes in Maryland law impacting environmental enforcement actions and Chesapeake Bay clean-up efforts, legal strategies to strengthen food systems and increase equitable participation in federal conservation programs, and federal policy initiatives focused on prioritizing climate-smart practices for farm businesses.
One panel discussed the Citizen Intervention Bill and explained the changes regarding who has standing in Maryland to intervene in civil actions brought by the state regarding the enforcement of water pollution control or related discharge permits, effluent limitations or orders issued by the Maryland Department of the Environment. The Environmental Enforcement Reporting Act, that requires MDE to keep electronic records of enforcement and water pollution date available to the public, was also touched on, Cook said.
Experts on the Chesapeake Bay, Watershed Implementation Program Manager Jason Keppler and Chesapeake Bay Commission Maryland Director Mark Hoffman, talked about recent legal changes, including an increase in state funding for on-farm conservation and the Clean Water Commerce Act, that will impact Maryland’s ability to reach water quality goals outlined in the Ag Sector 2025 Chesapeake Bay Clean-up Goals.
Important initiatives to address supply chain and equity issues in the state, especially related to lingering ramifications of the pandemic, were part of a panel featuring Lorig Charkoudian, Maryland House of Delegates, D-District 20; Justin Hayes, the MDA’s assistant attorney general; and Karen Fedor, the director of the newly created Certified Local Farm Program.
In response to the Biden administration’s announcement of its Climate 21 Project Transition Memo outlining plans to encourage agricultural practices that combat climate change through carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas mitigation, experts were on hand to lead a discussion on “the mechanics of carbon banking and the anticipated role of the federal government.” Cook said many of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s existing incentive programs already provide funding assistance for the adoption of “climate-smart” practices, but an official carbon banking system will at minimum require consistent accounting standards, equitable opportunities for participation and acceptance by the industry.
An exciting new legal educational series was introduced with the goal of increasing equitable participation among farmers in NRCS conservation programs along with discussion of the common pitfalls related to NRCS contracts.
Always popular, Cook said, is a session on recent changes to Maryland’s nutrient management and confined animal feeding operation laws and developing agricultural and environmental law issues to keep abreast of in the new year.
ALEI is a collaboration of UMES’ School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the University of Maryland College Park’s College of Agriculture & Natural Resources.
Gail Stephens, agricultural communications and media associate, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, gcstphens@umes.edu, 410-621-3850.
Photo by Todd Dudek, agricultural communications, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, tdudek@umes.edu.
