Orange feeds county's hunger for local foods

Presentations from the meeting (all files PDF)

• Orange County new farm enterprise incubator, Dr. Carl Matyac
• ADFP Trust Fund and farmland preservation, Mr. Dewitt Hardee
• Organic production in N.C., Dr. Chris Reberg-Horton

By Jason King
Assistant Communications Director

A new farm enterprise incubator initiative in Orange County is trying to grow the farming community and keep pace with a budding demand for locally grown foods, members of the NCACC Agriculture Steering Committee learned during their Feb. 10 meeting in Raleigh. Extension Agent Carl Matyac provided an overview of the county's PLANT @ Breeze program, which trains current and new/prospective farmers in Orange and six surrounding counties.

The 168-acre Breeze Farm is on property that was sold to the State of North Carolina by a charitable remainder trust established by the William Breeze family. The state designated it to the N.C. State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which collaborates with local cooperative extension centers on the program. The Orange County Board of Commissioners has for the past three fiscal years committed $10,000 for the PLANT @ Breeze initiative.

The initiative includes classroom training and an apprenticeship. For $110, participants in the classroom program receive training from extension agents, faculty from N.C. State and N.C. A&T, and local farmers. Weekly classes last three hours each and are held over a two-month period in January and February. Matyac said that the classroom training includes a big emphasis on marketing.

Participants are required to develop a business plan at the end of the classroom portion. Those who have their business plans approved can apply to become an apprentice on the farm. If approved, the participant agrees to rent a quarter-acre plot for $110. The participant is responsible for planting, weeding, irrigating, harvesting and marketing their crops. Extension staff provides the land prep (by contracting with local farmers), bedding work, irrigation setup and on-site consultation. Apprentices can rent plots for a maximum two-year period.

Matyac said that Orange County offers a unique market for agriculture because there is a high interest in local foods, particularly organically grown crops, and the county has excellent local food markets. There are currently 22 practicing apprentices at the farm, and all apprentices have sold their crops in a local market.

"It's not a huge area of financial impact but it is growing tremendously," he said. "People just snatch them up."

While the farm is not certified organic, "most of the participants are quite intent on keeping it organic," he said.

Using intensive, year-round growing, Matyac said some apprentices annually gross $25,000 an acre on the farm.

Matyac said the most common problem among participants involves weed maintenance issues on various plots. He said that Cooperative Extension is currently developing a handbook on expectations for apprentices.

Farmland preservation tools available to counties

Orange County is one of six in the state to have an approved Farmland Protection Plan in place in January 2010. Dewitt Hardee, program director for the N.C. Agriculture Development & Farmland Preservation (ADFP) Trust Fund, discussed Farmland Protection Plans as part of his presentation on how counties can help preserve their county's agriculture base through planning and policies.

According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, North Carolina lost 600,000 acres of farmland between 2002-07. With loss of cropland in mind, the General Assembly in 2005 created the ADFP Trust Fund "to fund projects to encourage the preservation of qualifying agricultural, horticultural and forestlands to foster the growth, development and sustainability of family farms."

According to Hardee, agribusiness is a $70 billion annual industry in North Carolina. For counties, Hardee quoted an American Farmland Trust survey that showed that for every dollar in taxes received from working lands, only 34 cents in services is paid by the government. There are also quality of life objectives to farmland preservation, and developing traditional rural areas destroys the landscapes that attract and retain people and industries in North Carolina, he added.

"We're trying to keep sprawl off the land," he said. "If we don't find a way to protect [existing farmland] that $70 billion is going to disappear."

The ADFP Trust Fund works with various levels of government to help protect agricultural interests, Hardee noted. Two examples are the military and the N.C. Department of Transportation. The military is interested in keeping housing developments from encroaching on military bases, Hardee said, due to the military's need for "dark areas" for aircraft landing zones. The Trust Fund also works with the military, he said, to provide food resources and develop alternative energy sources. The Trust Fund works with the DOT and state agencies to try to make sure that road construction does not fatally disrupt family farms.

"The No. 1 thing that kills a family farm operation is a highway going through the middle of it," he said.

Mr. Hardee spoke of the ADFP Trust Fund's farmland preservation toolbox and included resources for counties. Among these are Conservation Easements, Voluntary Agricultural Districts (VADs), Enhanced VADs, and Farmland Protection Plans, all of which counties can use to support county agricultural policies.

In a VAD or EVAD, the property owner enters a voluntary agreement with the county to surrender their development rights to the property. Property owners receive varying degrees of benefits. Farmland Protection Plans are tools developed by counties to help a county identify its inventory of agricultural resources, challenges and opportunities for family farms, maintenance tools, and schedules and funding.

The ADFP Trust Fund has model ordinances for VADs and Farmland Protection Plans available on its Web site, www.ncadfp.org. Follow the "Farmland Preservation" link to access the models.

The Association has a legislative goal to expand funding for the Trust Fund and "to create a dedicated revenue source to assure continued and stable fund maintenance."

North Carolina ripe for organic crop production

Committee members also heard from Chris Reberg-Horton, an assistant professor of crop science at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University. Reberg-Horton said that North Carolina is a hotbed for organics processors due to its status as a prime shipping area for the East Coast. There is no organic certifying agency in the state now, however, and most organic crops are shipped in from the Midwest for processing.

"We have a real niche here," he said. "Our growers are transitioning a lot of land in a hurry to catch up with the market."

Reberg-Horton called organic crops "value-added," but said it does take a "rethinking" of one's farm system to make it work. There is a price premium on organically grown crops and goods. For example, in 2008, egg farmers typically received anywhere from two to four times the price they would for conventional eggs. Organic soybeans drew $23-$25 a bushel, while organic corn drew $9-$12 per bushel.

Reberg-Horton explained that a real problem for livestock farmers is price stability, and organics does offer a lot of shelter from that problem. He did add that organic farming is "definitely a little harder to do and more expensive." Reberg-Horton said that various studies have shown that yields for organic crops are roughly the same as conventional crops over the long-term, but he argued that establishing a long-term outlook for profit is virtually impossible.

Reberg-Horton also discussed a three-year USDA grant that N.C. State has received to develop corn, peanut, soybean and wheat varieties with traits identified by farmers as necessary for organic production. Reberg-Horton will co-coordinate the breeding effort.

Researchers finding state's niche in biofuels sector

Steven Burke, president and CEO of the Biofuels Center of North Carolina, told members of the Agriculture and Environment steering committees that North Carolina holds vast potential to be a leader in the production of biofuels.

The Biofuels Center, located in Granville County, has been given the long-term task of developing a statewide biofuels industry to reduce the state's dependence on imported liquid fuels. Burke said the commitment to this effort from the State of North Carolina has increased production of feedstocks in the state and that the state holds great potential due to climate conditions and topography.

Burke said that due to those factors, North Carolina will not be dependent on a single crop – in particular a food source – for biofuels development. Some of those feedstocks being grown and researched now include canola, switchgrass, industrial sweet potatoes and trees.

"There's no other state in America that can grow so many of the different feedstocks for biofuels as can North Carolina," he said. "The task is to look at which of these feedstocks are actually most important for North Carolina."

Burke estimated that two-thirds of feedstocks will come from forestry (tree-based) resources, and a third will come from "other stuff." He added that the state must be aggressive in identifying which crops can be grown in which regions throughout the year.

"How about barley as a winter crop to support soybeans to augment trees in a given region?" he asked.

Burke said that counties can contribute to the effort by showing leadership. An easy action would be to purchase vehicles that can utilize biofuels for a county's fleet. He said it is also feasible for counties and municipalities to use their waste for conversion to liquid fuels, which can be used in those alternative fuel vehicles. Burke also said counties can help with recognition that local biofuels production can join a county's roster of economic development tools.

Chairman Ray Jeffers, a Person County commissioner, set the steering committee's next meeting for Thursday, May 20, at 9 a.m. at the Albert Coates Local Government Center in Raleigh.