Regional Agriculture Initiative

Agricultural land is an integral part of our growing region’s green infrastructure. The challenge to local, state, and regional planning agencies and other organizations is to help farm, forested, and other open space lands maintain their integrity in the changing landscape for food and other kinds of agricultural production. Further, these working lands provide numerous other benefits to the region and its local communities, including critical ecosystem services.

COG’s Regional Agricultural Initiative and Workgroup provide information on the current and historical state of agriculture in the metropolitan Washington area. They create regional networks to link farmers, food and farm technical assistance providers, entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers and consumers.  A committee of staff-level regional agricultural representatives and food policy staff meet several times each year to discuss pressing agricultural issues affected by a rapidly developing region. Over time, this and other COG work on food and farming, has brought together technical assistance providers like these, and other public, private, and nonprofit stakeholders, to examine infrastructure and other needs to build a more resilient, prosperous, and equitable regional food system for the region.

COG collects and disseminates unique information on regional agriculture. Since 2012, it has published What Our Region Grows with the assistance of its Regional Agricultural Work Group. COG has also developed a regional list of farmers offering Community Supported Agriculture shares.