Is a Taylor Swift-themed corn maze considered agriculture? What about haunted houses, wedding venues, or goat yoga? These were some of the questions posed at the 2024 Agricultural and Environmental Law Conference in Annapolis, where legal experts and farmers gathered to tackle pressing issues facing Maryland's agricultural community.

(L-R) Kathleen Hoke, Wes Krock, and Amy Cawley, present on the farm donations panel at the 10th annual ALEI Conference.

The tenth annual conference, hosted by the University of Maryland Agriculture Law Education Initiative (ALEI), brought together farmers, environmentalists, and policymakers for five panels addressing critical issues in agricultural law and environmental protection.

"I went to a haunted house recently, and instead of being scared, I was just focused on whether it qualified as agritourism," said Jesse Richardson, professor and lead land use attorney at West Virginia University College of Law, highlighting the complex legal questions surrounding agricultural diversification.

The morning began with environmental and land use attorney Tony Gorski, Esq., and Richardson examining recent developments in right-to-farm laws in Maryland and across the nation. The following panel featured insights from legal scholars about regulating value added agriculture -  which in Maryland  might include converting fruit into wine, turning a farm into a wedding venue, creating corn mazes, or offering farm experiences like hayrides and pumpkin patches.

According to a 2020 Grow and Fortify report  the value-added agriculture industry supports close to 74,000 jobs and brings a total economic impact of over $20.6 billion annually to the state’s economy.

However, as the conference revealed, defining what qualifies as agricultural versus commercial use has become increasingly complex.

“[Agritourism] is something that not only we in the legal profession, but many of our ag economists, our ag rural sociologists, have been dealing with for quite a few years now” noted panelist Peggy Kirk Hall, director of the Agricultural and Resource Law Program at Ohio State University.  “It's just trying to understand what is this thing that we're calling agritourism, and how do we define it?”

"This year we’re excited to bring panelists who are experts at other institutions of higher education particularly related to value-added agriculture,” said Margaret Todd, JD,  ALEI Senior Research Associate and Managing Director. “It’s a subject we've been struggling with here in the state of Maryland,” she continued.

“The conversations around how to best regulate value-added agriculture have been ongoing in Maryland,"  explained Queen Anne’s County Long Range Principal Planner Stephanie Jones who added the county received a $75,000 grant to study the economic impact and policy implications of value-added agricultural operations. "We need to update our code, make sure it's realistic for everyone, while looking at county regulations, state regulations, and how they intermingle with health department regulations. There’s a lot of moving parts."

A crucial midday session focused on Maryland's new food processing residuals law which took effect in July 2024. Food processing residuals are organic waste materials generated when agricultural products are processed for human or animal consumption. "For instance, when you process chicken for things like Super Bowl wings, there's going to be wastewater that comes from that processing," explained Hans Schmidt, Maryland Department of Agriculture's Assistant Secretary for Resource Conservation. "Those waste streams need to be managed, and in many cases, these products are spread onto farm fields because they contain valuable nutrients for the next crops - it's a circular system. Farmers grow the grain, the grain is fed to chickens, the chickens are processed for consumption, and the waste goes back on the landscape to fertilize the next crop."

Schmidt and Dwight Dotterer, Nutrient Management Program administrator from the Maryland Department of Agriculture detailed new regulations requiring permits for food processing residuals and explained the standards for waste application. "We need to find some middle ground. We know the importance of these industries," Schmidt said, noting that while the residuals provide valuable nutrients to farmland, new permits and strict application standards are necessary to address community concerns about odors and truck traffic.

The afternoon brought focus to farm donations, where Kathleen Hoke, JD, MPH, professor at  University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and director of the Legal Resource Center for Public Health Policy highlighted recent changes to federal Good Samaritan laws, which aim to reduce food waste and food insecurity while protecting farmers from liability. First Fruits Farm Chief Operating Officer Wes Krock shared his organization's success story, noting they've grown from "a backyard garden to distributing about 5 million pounds of produce this year."

The final panel on solar development revealed the significant agricultural land needs for meeting renewable energy goals. "We're looking at agrivoltaics - the simultaneous use of land for agricultural production and solar production," explained Drew Schiavone, PhD, energy conservation specialist at University of Maryland Extension. The panel, which also included Bob Sadzinski from Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, and Elizabeth Thilmany, faculty specialist in the department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at College Park, examined Maryland’s approach to solar energy regulation and land use.

For law student Olivia Scuderi, the conference reinforced her career path. "I grew up in Montgomery County agriculture, and I would love to lobby for agriculture," said Scuderi, who hopes to take over her family’s farm one day. “My home and personal life is very involved in it, and I would love my professional life to be developed within it as well.”

The Agriculture Law Education Initiative (ALEI) is a collaboration of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB); the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources at the University of Maryland, College Park; and the School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. ALEI operates under the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership MPowering the State initiative, a strategic alliance created in 2012 to significantly expand research, business development, and student opportunities.

"Farmers have to navigate a complex array of laws, from environmental laws to contract laws to leases," said Deborah Eisenberg, JD, vice dean at Maryland Carey Law. "ALEI helps farmers across the state really understand the complexity of agriculture laws and do the right thing."

University of Maryland, College Park Provost and Senior Vice President Jennifer Rice, MS, PhD, praised the annual conference emphasizing ALEI’s importance to the state and the world. “It's so important for everyone to be together in this room today to take on the grand challenges that are facing agriculture here in our state and beyond,” she said. “It's really your collective expertise that will help us address some of the world's most pressing issues, some of our state's most pressing issues, such as climate change and food insecurity.”

Eisenberg agreed adding that Maryland Carey Law is, “committed to educating a pipeline of lawyers who will go out and practice agricultural law, whether representing farmers, being a solo practitioner in a small town helping a farmer down the street or helping to implement laws in ways that are beneficial for farmers."