AFT always welcome on Shore (Editorial)

On the evening of Aug. 17, Jim Baird and Evelina Erickson dropped by The Fisherman’s Inn at Kent Narrows on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for dinner.
They were guests of the Maryland Soybean Board which springs for dinner for its directors midway through their annual two-day August meeting.
Baird is executive director of the Mid-Atlantic office of the American Farmland Trust, one of seven regional offices of the organization from coast to coast. Erickson serves as the office’s director of development.
Although they were on the Eastern Shore on other business, the opportunity for the soybean growers to meet and chat with them was entirely appropriate.
AFT was founded in 1980 by a group of farmers and conservationists concerned, even back then, about the loss of farmland.
It has become the nation’s leader in saving farm and ranch land, promoting healthy farming practices and supporting farmers and their farms.
Its copyrighted “No Farms, No Food” slogan has become a byword in the ag land preservation effort and, not incidentally, lends support to the broad variety of “Buy Local, Eat Fresh” campaigns sprouting up across the country.
The directors of Maryland Soybean Board, who administer the national soybean checkoff program in the state, are all soybean growers and obviously have a huge stake in the preservation of Maryland farmland.
Baird’s visit was most welcome.