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Maryland Department of Agriculture

Environmental Justice & Community Resilience

Two youthful, dark-skinned hands planting young green plants in a garden.
Updated:

About Environmental Justice

Maryland aims to be a national and global leader in fighting climate change. In order to do so, the state must address issues and concerns that place all communities at risk, equally. 

State law defines environmental justice (EJ) as “equal protection from environmental and public health hazards for all people regardless of race, income, culture, and social status.”

Agriculture is as diverse as Maryland’s communities. As the state’s oldest and largest industry, we must consider how community, community health and resilience, and environmental justice play a role in the practice of agriculture. MDA is committed to working in collaboration with our state counterparts, scientists, and producers to address conditions that disproportionately affect our overburdened and underserved communities. 

Valuing Opportunities, Inclusion, and Community Equity (VOICE) Executive Order

In July 2025, Governor Moore signed the Valuing Opportunities, Inclusion, and Community Equity Executive Order (“VOICE EO”) and directed state agencies to develop Environmental Justice Strategic Plans. 

In alignment with the executive order, MDA is creating its first Environmental Justice Strategic Plan. The plan will provide background on why environmental justice is important for MDA’s work and identify goals, objectives, and actions MDA will take to advance environmental justice in its work moving forward. Once published, the report will be available on this page. 

We pledge to:

  • ​Advance DEIJ with partners.
  • At MDA, we work with our conservation partners at the federal, state, and local levels to maintain our leadership role in agricultural conservation.
  • It is imperative that we pursue diversity and acceptance and provide equitable access to our services, programs, and educational offerings.
  • MDA recognizes Maryland’s comprehensive definitions of overburdened and underserved communities in our work as outlined in the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022.
  • In addition, MDA acknowledges the USDA definition of historically underserved (HU) producers and ranchers. USDA defines HU producers as:
    • ​Beginning farmer or rancher — new to farming or ranching with less than 10 years experience.
    • Socially disadvantaged — member of a group who has been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice as a result of their identity.
    • Veteran farmer or rancher. 

Coming soon: MDA’s Environmental Justice Strategic Plan

In alignment with the VOICE executive order, MDA is creating its first Environmental Justice Strategic Plan. 

The plan will provide background on why environmental justice is important for MDA’s work and identify goals, objectives, and actions MDA will take to advance environmental justice in its work moving forward. 

MDA invites everyone to offer input, participate, and contribute to our drafting process on how MDA could further advance environmental justice through our work, programs, and policies. Please see below. There will be several opportunities to provide comments. We anticipate a full draft will be available for review by early Summer 2026. 

Plan overview 

A webinar with a general overview of MDA’s EJ Plan strategy will be posted shortly.

How to provide input 

  • ​Email: Comments, concerns, questions, and other input may be submitted to MDA’s Environmental Justice Lead Nadya Chehab via email or this f​orm.
  • Environmental Justice Plan Overview: For a general overview of the EJ strategic plan.
  • MDA Environmental Justice Strategic Plan Survey: We will be using this survey form to better understand the issues that are important to our agricultural community. It will remain open for submissions until June 2026. The survey is available here​. 

Program information

​Office Address
Maryland Department of Agriculture
Office of Resource Conservation
Room 306
50 Harry S. Truman Parkway
Annapolis, MD 21401​

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Environmental Justice Strategic Plan

This video provides a general overview, briefly discussing the background of the Executive Order 01.01.2025.17, MDA's role, and our plan and process for creating our EJ Strategic Plan.

Links & resources