ALEI Helps Guide Farmers Through COVID-19
When Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced the closure of all nonessential businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Laura Beth Resnick immediately began to worry.
Laura Beth Resnick, owner of Butterbee Farm, with her blooms. Photo: Julie Hove Andersen Photography
Resnick owns Butterbee Farm, a 5-acre farm in Baltimore County that supplies sustainably grown local flowers to florists. The farm operates year-round, growing over a hundred varieties of blossoms, including feverfew and larkspur in the spring; zinnias and snapdragons in the summer; and dahlias, celosia, and heirloom mums in the fall.
Florists in Baltimore, Washington, and Northern Virginia have come to depend on her fresh local blooms, which travel fewer than 50 miles from farm to their destination. In fact, demand for Butterbee Farm鈥檚 flowers has spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the breakdown of the supply chain of the global floral industry. Currently, Butterbee Farm is one of the only flower games in town.
The governor鈥檚 March 23 announcement was a dark day for Resnick, who wondered whether she would have to shut down her operation and lay off her staff. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 really sure what to do,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 grow vegetables, so I wasn鈥檛 sure if we were essential.鈥�
The lack of clarity prompted her to reach out to Sarah Everhart, JD, (ALEI) senior legal specialist and managing director of the program at the . Since 2013, ALEI, a program, has been helping Maryland farmers navigate state, federal, and local laws that impact their operations. ALEI is composed of the combined legal and agricultural expertise of the Carey School of Law, the , and the .
The onset of COVID-19 has made ALEI an even more important resource for farmers grappling with rapidly changing regulations. 鈥淎s soon as the governor started shutting down businesses, we started getting calls from the agricultural community about how this was going to affect their operations,鈥� Everhart says.
ALEI鈥檚 working group quickly mobilized to answer individual questions but also created a frequently updated to address common issues such as for agricultural employees, in contracts, and the newly instituted federal .
Everhart says ALEI legal specialists have been keeping their ears to the ground to ensure they are providing answers to farmers鈥� concerns in real time. They anticipate calls in the coming weeks from Delmarva poultry farmers who will be impacted by the closure of production plants and the subsequent disruption of the supply chain.
鈥淭he issues are all over the map,鈥� says Paul Goeringer, JD, LLM, MS, extension legal specialist, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, 爆料公社, and an ALEI member. Goeringer has assisted farmers with queries ranging from labor issues to managing contracts canceled due to COVID-19. 鈥淲e鈥檙e dealing with questions as they come up,鈥� he says.
In addition to his role at ALEI, Goeringer hosts the popular weekly , which brings in agriculture experts from across the country to discuss important farming issues. Recent topics include and a podcast about the importance of estate planning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Resnick鈥檚 case, her answer came almost two days later when Everhart emailed her updated guidance clarifying that, in addition to farms being declared essential businesses, nurseries and greenhouses, although subject to social distancing requirements, also were considered essential businesses. The days of not knowing were 鈥渁n awful, really sad and scary time,鈥� she says. Armed with information from ALEI, 鈥淲e realized we were good to go. It was such a relief,鈥� Resnick adds.
As a small business owner, Resnick says she is grateful for the service that ALEI provides. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a small farm, we don鈥檛 make a lot of money, and lawyers are expensive, so having ALEI as a resource is a huge comfort.鈥�