This photo shows the rows of crops that are planted (tomatoes) on Normans Farm in Howard County Maryland where Moffitt worked to scout and harvest.
Food is one of the most important necessities that we have in our lives. Some people make a life and a career of studying, preparing and growing food, but seldom do we stop and think about where our food comes from. The idea of not knowing where food comes from created an opportunity for Aidan Moffitt to pursue his passion for food. Moffitt, an Agricultural Leadership and Communication major at the University of Maryland’s Institute of Applied Agriculture (IAA), is pursuing a career in agriculture business. Growing up in Silver Spring Maryland, just twenty minutes outside the beautiful University of Maryland College Park Campus and a half-hour from the nation’s capital, Moffitt acquired a passion for environmental science and sustainable agriculture, and he particularly enjoys watching produce transition from the farm to consumer tables.
Moffitt’s 2021 summer internship took place at Norman’s Farm Market which is operated out of a farm located in Howard County. Norman’s Farm Market’s distribution of produce and products are primarily carried out via their farm stands which are scattered throughout Montgomery County Maryland, as well as through online pickup orders. Moffitt helped with day-to-day setup and cleanup of the stand operations and played a monumental role during harvest and product transport at the farm itself. One of his most memorable tasks was the sourcing, handling, and distribution of gourmet and rare exotic food items. These items included fresh cheeses, gourmet baked goods, fresh seafood, drinks made in-house, as well as what he calls “gimmick” fruits like cucuamelons (a cross between a cucumber and a canary melon).
Through these jobs and responsibilities, Moffitt gained valuable customer service skills, and harvesting techniques, learned about harvest intervals, and acquired experience in distributional communication and business management. Moffitt’s favorite part of his experience at his internship was the work environment. Everyone shared the same passion for food and organic produce and he was able to build relationships with his coworkers over the summer. “I was always super into food growing up,” Moffitt explains as he talked about his background in the industry. The biggest push for him was that “the food tastes so much better when you know where it comes from.”
Moffitt also enjoyed comparing different aspects of the fresh organic produce from the farm store and the produce from the average grocery store. Moffitt’s future career goals are focused on the farm-to-table aspect of the food industry, but he is not sure where he will end up at. Outside of this internship, Moffitt has worked in the kitchen at a restaurant in past years, and this internship experience has allowed him to “see where the food that I work with every day comes from.” It is always good to relate to the products that we consume and use because it allows us to appreciate what we have and where we came from as a society and as a species.
