ReThink Speaker Series: Food
April 22, 2010
Park and Planning Headquarters, 8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring
Panelists
Ben Allnutt, Homestead Farms
The Allnutt farming tradition in Montgomery County goes back to 1763 when James Allnutt of Calvert County, Maryland bought 746 acres of land along Seneca Creek known at the "Thomas Discovery." Today, Homestead Farm consists of 230 acres of this original land purchase.
In 1900, Robert and Alice Allnutt finished building the white farm house. Their son, Benoni, was born in that house in 1917. Benoni continued to farm the land and raise five children with his wife, Sarah. Today, Benoni and Sarah's oldest son, Ben, carries on the farming tradition. Ben, his wife Maureen, and their son Ian now make Homestead Farm their home and continue to farm the land.
Wade Butler, Butler Orchards
Wade along with his Mother, brother and sister own and operate Butler's Orchard in Germantown. His parents, George and Shirley grew up in Silver Spring and graduated from Blair High School. They bought the farm in 1950. This is the 60th anniversary of the business. The focus is on pick your own fruits and vegetables and agritourism. The farm is located in Montgomery County's Agricultural Reserve consisting of about 300 acres. Wade is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in Horticulture. He recently completed his term as Chairman of the county's Agriculture Advisory Committee. He is Treasurer of the Montgomery Soil Conservation Board. He and his wife Angela of 31 years have 3 children Hallie Blue, Tyler and Ben.
Gordon Clark, Montgomery Victory Gardens
Gordon Clark is a lifelong activist and organizer. He served the national Executive Director of Peace Action, the nation's largest grassroots peace and disarmament organization, from 1996 to 2001, followed by a position as the national Field Director for the Congress Watch division of Public Citizen. Gordon has also worked on environmental issues throughout his professional career, most recently as a Project Coordinator for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, or CCAN, and ran for Congress in 2008 to help bring attention to the issue of global warming.
In 2009 Gordon joined with the county's Master Gardeners to establish Montgomery Victory Gardens, a non-profit initiative committed to building a more self-reliant and sustainable local food system in Montgomery County; he serves as MVG's Project Director. As an integral part of the effort to build a local food system, MVG works with individual and community gardeners to bring the experience of growing and eating fresh, healthy local food to county residents, and has organized the first county-wide community gardening network among houses of worship to support local food pantries. MVG is also heading the effort to bring vegetable gardens to our county's public schools, and produces a weekly update with the best in local food news, events and policy developments.
Gordon is a frequent public speaker and writer, including a regular column for the Voice newspapers. A graduate of Brown University (1982) with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, Gordon has been a resident of Silver Spring with his wife Emily and cats Domino and Snooper since 1998.
Jeremy Criss, Dept. of Economic Development Agricultural Services Division
Jeremy Criss has worked with the Maryland farm community in addressing the needs of farmers since 1983. He worked in Baltimore County until 1988 where he administered the farmland preservation (PDR) program.
Jeremy Criss is currently the Agricultural Services Division Manager for Montgomery County, Maryland within the Department of Economic Development (DED). He manages the County’s Farmland Preservation (PDR and TDR) and agricultural marketing programs.
These programs support the viability of agriculture in preserving farmland for future generations while also providing new marketing outlets for farms selling their products. Jeremy received his Bachelors degree from the University of Maryland in Agricultural and Resource Economics and he received his Masters of Arts degree from Towson State University in Administrative and Business Management.
Learn more about the speaker series.