The November General Membership Luncheon will be held on Wednesday, November 20, and feature Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Kevin Atticks.
Atticks was appointed Acting Secretary of Agriculture on Jan. 18, 2023, and sworn in as Secretary on March 2, 2023.
Prior to his appointment, Atticks was CEO (and founder) of Grow & Fortify, a company supporting value-added agricultural organizations and the businesses they represent. Grow & Fortify published the first assessment of the state’s value-added agricultural industry, illustrating the expansive impact generated by this sector, which includes wineries, creameries, meat processing, agritourism, equine, and dozens of other industry segments.
Atticks served as Executive Director of the Maryland Wineries Association, Brewers Association of Maryland, and the Maryland Distillers Guild, the President of the Maryland Agricultural Resource Council, and the Chair of the WineAmerica State & Regional Associations Advisory Council.
Atticks formerly served on the University of Maryland College of Agriculture's Global Leadership Council, the board of Future Harvest, and the board of the Maryland Tourism Coalition.?
Secretary Atticks will speak on the agricultural industry, specifically:
- conservation efforts
- the significant challenges facing farming in Maryland
-
impacts suffered due to the Key Bridge disaster
- the agriculture economy
- proposed new regulations that may impact the industry
