Hance sworn in as ag chief

Friday, May 15, 2009

Hance, 53, served as deputy secretary since February 2007 and was elevated to the top job following the May 5 retirement of Roger L. Richardson. The Port Republic resident becomes the first Southern Marylander in O'Malley's cabinet, an exclusion that initially aggravated the region's top Democrats.

"Eventually, the governor got things right," quipped Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert, Prince George's) who attended Thursday's swearing-in ceremony.

Even before taking the oath, Hance was enveloped in a brewing controversy over the court-mandated release of nutrient management plans that has enraged farmers because they say it will reveal proprietary information. Environmentalists, who filed suit to have the data made public, said it will encourage compliance without exposing business practices.

Hance said he realizes farmers' concerns but the court ruling trumps his authority to prevent the data's release. Still, he pledged to keep farmers' interests close at heart whenever possible.

"You sit here and make decisions that impact agricultural people out here working every day, working hard to make a living, doing the best they can and there are times we make decisions that will affect their operations and it is something you can never lose sight of," he said in an interview on Wednesday.

That approach is a product of Hance's background.

The former tobacco farmer who now grows corn, wheat and soybeans at his family's 400-acre parcel and on land he rents in Calvert County, is a past president of the Maryland Farm Bureau and has chaired both the Maryland State Tobacco Authority and the Southern Maryland Agricultural Commission. Hance leases about 30 acres from Maryland Independent Managing Editor Joel Davis.

"The one thing you learn in the Farm Bureau is that it is grassroots organization that policy comes from — from the bottom to the top," he said. "I treat that as the basis for everything I do."

The swearing-in ceremony came the same week that President Barack Obama committed federal resources to Chesapeake Bay restoration and as O'Malley (D) unveiled a raft of ambitious two-year benchmarks to accelerate the pace of bay cleanup goals. The initiative includes a doubling of the state's cover crop program, which has already ballooned in recent years. Last year alone, 50,000 new acres of cover crops was planted across the state, Hance said.

In his two years as deputy secretary, Hance has gained the respect and partnership of the agricultural and environmental communities, while forging relationships with legislators, O'Malley said.

"His ability to reach across the aisle to find a way forward has enabled him to work very well with members of the General Assembly," the governor said.

Hance has several initiatives he hopes to enhance as secretary.

One is to expand the "Buy Local" program that encourages the purchase and consumption of local produce as well as its use in school lunches. "Now, agriculture needs to react and gear up to provide the products that meet the market," he said.

That will, in turn, help preserve open space, another one of Hance's priorities.

"There will never be enough money to buy all the development rights in the state of Maryland," he said. "It's always been our position that profitable agriculture is the best way to prevent development pressure."

For now, Hance is taking an optimistic approach to what remains the state's No. 1 industry. "Agriculture may have some challenges ahead, but it also has great opportunity," he said.

abrody@somdnews.com