Harford County (Map, News) - Harford County Councilman Chad Shrodes can already see it: a section in grocery stores designated for local farmers’ processed foods, from family-recipe fruit pies to hamburgers.

“I just have a vision,” Shrodes said. “I see just going to the section of the grocery store, and it says ‘Harford County supports local farmers.’ ”

He’s in the process of planting that seed, researching how to craft stipulations so he can introduce legislation loosening restrictions to allow more local farmers to process and sell their own food. Shrodes hopes his legislation passes the County Council by August, Council President Billy Boniface said.

“That’s a great idea, but before we do that, we need to look at the chain reaction things that happen,” Boniface said.

“If they want to keep agriculture in this area, they need to find a way for farmers to grow economically,” said Sam Fielder III, head of the Harford County Farm Bureau.

He said local farmers invest millions of dollars but only profit about $50,000 each year.

The entire state should follow the lead of Pennsylvania, which is successful with looser laws, Fielder said.

Currently, only some larger farms can process and sell food, and Shrodes says he’s being “bombarded” with requests to loosen the restrictions.

Boniface listed some of the restrictions that need to be considered for the legislation to pass: whether products for processing must be grown on the same farm; how many acres a farm needs; how much the business needs to grow to warrant continued processing; and how health concerns will be addressed.

“I’m all for it. It’ll help my operation also,” said Boniface, a farmer himself. “[But] you’ve got to make sure it works.”

And because the county’s recently revised zoning codes are under review for the next 10 months, Shrodes is even more wary of how much he can push the issue. If he writes the legislation, but then the zoning codes drastically change, he’ll have to rewrite his bill to follow the codes.

He did, however, obtain a copy this week of the new codes, at the same time work group members received copies.

“This is my baby,” Shrodes said. “I don’t want it to get banged up.”

msilvestri@baltimoreexaminer.com

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