News

Published in the Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology Update, Adapted for MPower website | August 29, 2025

Last month students from the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) in the UM Scholars Program, Russell Brinsfield Internship Program, and Agriculture Law Education Initiative — Anna Sanders, Isabella Trujillo-Terenin, Ilene Stark, Abdullah Jishan Chowdhury, Patrick Hart, and Mahnaaz Qaderi — presented information about several statewide projects they completed throughout the summer.

A sizeable portion of their work focused on the Maryland food system — a complex aspect of Maryland’s economy, complete with interconnected relationships between producers, consumers and intermediaries. They also spent time engaging with state agencies and agricultural and environmental stakeholders, experiences that assist them with their research but also provide professional networking and educational opportunities.

In partnership with the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA), the Brinsfield interns conducted extensive literature reviews, interviews and studied models to provide research on the current state of the local food system and provide the necessary background information for MDA to update its strategic plan for local food production and procurement. 

Isabella Trujillo (a recent UMCP graduate who majored in Environmental Science and Policy and minored in International Development and Conflict Management), Ilene Stark (a recent UMCP graduate who majored in Environmental Science and Policy), Jishan Chowdhurry (an undergraduate at UMCP majoring in Environmental Science and Technology), and Anna Sanders (a student at the Francis King Carey School of Law at UMB) spent the summer researching food supply chain infrastructure, institutional and public procurement, policy, and governance as they relate to the Maryland food system. 

Together, they identified trends within the dozens of different definitions of “agriculture” across state agencies, created visual resources that will help farmers enroll in SNAP benefits to increase their market opportunities, and collaborated with organizations like Maryland Sea Grant to co-create a tool that educates landowners on available Best Management Practices (practices that best minimize negative environmental impacts). More generally, the interns provided background research necessary for the MDA to produce a comprehensive and well-informed strategic plan. 

The Brinsfield interns were privileged to partner this summer with two other internship programs through the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State (MPower) and the Agriculture Law Education Initiative (ALEI).

Mahnaaz Qaderi, an MPower-supported UM Scholar, participated in two projects. She identified in-state barriers to local food procurement and conducted a comparative policy assessment on other states’ local food procurement policies and programs. 

ALEI’s Eastern Shore law fellow, Patrick Hart, worked with Washington College’s Center for the Environment and Society to research the best foundational and sustainable practices that the Lower Shore Food Policy Council should utilize. Hart also researched death deeds, a life estate planning tool often used by the agriculture community. 

The Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology is immensely proud of our summer interns and fellows. We are positive that their research will leave a lasting impact on Maryland’s agriculture sector by informing future policies and practices to create a more sustainable and just future.

Click to Watch on YouTube

About the Brinsfield Internship: Since 2017, the Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology has held the Russell Brinsfield Internship Program in partnership with the University of Maryland Francis Carey School of Law. This internship, named after the Center’s late co-founder, Dr. Russ Brinsfield, is a unique partnership that provides students with an opportunity to gain experience developing research-based solutions to issues and questions posed by Maryland’s stakeholders, policymakers and communities. The University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State (MPower) funds this internship.