Q&A: Why Nick's Organic Farm Shouldn't Get Turned into Soccer F...
- Farming ·
- Food Policy ·
- Food Security ·
Nick Maravell of Maryland's Montgomery County has runNick's Organic Farm for the past 31 years. Maravell leases the site from the Montgomery County Board of Education (BOE), which plans to eventually build a public school on the land once the region's schools become overcrowded.
Year after year, the BOE renewed Maravell's lease — until this year. Beginning in 2012, the BOE will lease the land to the County, which plans to partner with a private organization, Montgomery Soccer Incorporated (MSI), in order to build soccer fields on the site. There was no public hearing on the issue, and no one even informed Maravell that his farm could get taken away until two weeks before the decision was made.
Fans and supporters of Nick's Organic Farm are understandably upset, and they started a petition here on Change.org. We caught up with Maravell to talk about why Nick's Organic Farm should become a food education hub — not soccer fields.
SP: Tell me about your farm.
NM: I started in 1980 as a vegetable farmer. Over the years as I’ve expanded my operation, Nick’s Organic Farm in Potomac has become primarily seed production. I am in a location where I’m not near other agricultural fields, so as an organic farmer, I produce seed that is free of GMO contamination. I have another farm about 30 miles away, and I use my seed there to produce corn and soybean and other crops. I also use some of the seed to mix into my feed that I use for poultry. We have free-range chickens and turkeys.
SP: What role does Nick’s Organic Farm play in the community?
NM: There aren’t many organic seed farms in the area, and there are no organic seed farms in Montgomery County. Part of what I do is sell seed to other poultry producers in Montgomery County and the surrounding areas because it’s certified organic seed. This feeds into many other farmers who are raising poultry. I sell my seed both directly to farmers in the area as well as to small seed companies that handle organic seed.
SP: You lease the land for Nick’s Organic Farm — you don’t own it. So why do you think what the County is doing is so egregious?
NM: The land is not owned by the County, either. They’re leasing it. The land is owned by the school board and it’s a future school site. What I do for the school board is I maintain the land in its current condition while it awaits school construction. In effect, I’m the caretaker of the land. I can’t do anything that would alter the land—I can’t build on it, I can’t drain it, I can’t dredge it. You’re only allowed to use it for agricultural purposes.
The County simply said to the school board, “we don’t want any farmers on that land. We want to lease it, we want to bulldoze it and put in soccer fields.” They’re going to have a partnership with a private soccer organization, and that soccer organization would charge anyone who wanted to use the fields. They would not be generally open to the public. So this wouldn't be local soccer fields for neighborhood or school children. This is private use of the property.
SP: Not only do you want to save your farm, you and your supporters want to turn Nick’s Organic Farm into a food education center. Tell me about this plan.
NM: My lease has always restricted me to traditional agricultural activities. What we’re proposing is for Montgomery County to use Nick's as an asset. There’s probably not another piece of land in Montgomery County that’s been farmed continuously organically for the past 31 years, and we would like to create an educational opportunity. It would be a learning center where people were able to see what an actual farming operation can do and its contribution to the environment, food security, and food safety.
SP: What are the next steps with this campaign?
NM: Our objection has always been that the County never had a discussion over what the use of this site should be — they decided themselves it should be used for a private soccer organization, and there was never any consideration of alternatives. We’ve never had any public discussion or opportunity to discuss in any open way the alternatives, so we're asking our supporters to come to a meeting on June 9th to discuss these alternatives with the County. The meeting is sponsored by the County, and it’s designed to discuss the concerns about issuing a proposal for soccer fields.
To attend the June 9th meeting or find out more information about it, visit the campaign's Web site here. You can also sign the petition asking Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett ... from becoming soccer fields.
Photo credit: Nick Maravell
Sarah Parsons is Change.org's Sustainable Food Editor. Her work has appeared in Popular Science, OnEarth, Audubon and Plenty.
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