Structured Interview Questions
1. Name
2. Organization Contact Information:
3. Title:
4. Role in organizations:
5. Professional background of person being interviewed
Legally, a family farm is defined in Maryland as having the following qualities as summarized below:
a) A domestic entity;
(b) Property qualifies for agricultural use assessment under § 8-209 of the Tax – Property Article;
(c) Controlled, managed and operated by individual(s) who have an equity interest in the property, and if owned by more than one individual, shares its assets and earnings; and
(d) Is declared in charter provisions as a family farm.
Given the definition above, please respond to the following questions below:
6. What are the ways that you and your organization work with family farms
7. What types of family farms do you and your organization work with
8. What do you understand to be the biggest law-related challenges facing family farms in Maryland?
9. What evidence and information do you have that supports this understanding? Do you know of any reports, data or information that can help us understand the nature of these challenges?
10. How are the legal needs of family farmers different from “agribusiness” more broadly or from corporate-owned farming operations?
11. What has worked in the past to help family farmers meet these challenges?
12. Have other organizations helped family farmers meet these challenges? What other ways might work?
Thinking more broadly, what are law-related challenges faced by people living in rural communities more generally?
