If you were watching TBD tonight and were heartened to see coverage of a soccer field controversy in Montgomery County, you might have been surprised by the piece. It showed farmer Nick Maravell, but it made no mention of Nick's Organic Farm being the unique resource that it is, or even being organic.
Instead, the segment portrayed opposition to the project as well-heeled Potomac residents who don't want soccer traffic near their homes, and as a private farmer worried about his livelihood while farming county-owned land that should be put to public use.
Take a look--and post a comment to ask them yourself why they didn't report the true source of the controversy.
I posted this:
ReplyDeleteAnd what gets me is the initial "circumvention of PROCESS" that the Montgomery County Board of Ed AND County Exec Ike took to begin with!
While it was noted on this clip that the "public land" was slated to be ball fields, more correctly, the 2002 Potomac Master Plan called for the site to be 1st changed to "SURPLUS'; THEN, it was to be looked @ for "possible COMMUNITY Park w/PERHAPS a Ball Field." But this info is all in the original Potomac Master Plan 2002. Public land like this under 50 acres is supposed to be for the "Community" ~ NOT the "County!" This site is only 20 acres.
Add: The recent MD upholding of "No Child Left Inside" that has mandatory environmental education that is being implemented for all MD students. Add that schools have lost so much of their own land to Private ventures that MCPS (235 acres since 1994) has recently been looking to PARK LAND for use.
And regarding the farmer, Nick Maravell: As the ONLY certified organic farm in MoCo, and the only other of it's kind in ALL of MD, he is supplying a much needed "service." Especially in view of the recent passing of the GMO Bill that allows farmers to use more GMO products; thereby putting ALL existing certified Organic farms (generally close to "conventional" farms) @ risk of being lost FOR GOOD from cross-pollination issues.
This does not even touch on the fact that most of us over here are on well water, and the farmer has taken care of run-off water and uses no chemicals or pesticides. The list goes on. This clip did not touch on many pertinent issues.