Haywood farmers talk Hurricane Helene recovery, continuing loss of farmland
For most North Carolina farmers, 2024 was a challenging year. Cory Vaillancourt photo
Local elected leaders and farmers, along with state and federal officials, gathered April 14 over bacon and eggs to tackle twin challenges facing Western North Carolina’s agricultural sector — ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene and the accelerating loss of prime farmland.
“Most people eat three meals a day, and they never really think much about where that food comes from,” said Don Smart, longtime president of the Haywood County Farm Bureau. “Those eggs over there and the bacon this morning comes from North Carolina. North Carolina is one of the leading poultry states in the nation, and one of the leading hog-producing states in the nation.”
Agriculture in North Carolina is a $100 billion industry that employs 10% of the state’s workforce, but the threats against it have never been more ominous.
“This past year was a devastating year for us in agriculture as well as in non-agriculture areas with that terrible hurricane we had,” Smart said.
When Hurricane Helene tore through Western North Carolina last September, it left a swath of chaos that was easily observable to most — buildings, gone; bridges, destroyed; roads, torn asunder. Somewhat less tangible tragedies, in the form of damage to agriculture and aquaculture producers, will leave a mark no less enduring on both the land and on the local economy.
“2024 was a challenging year not only for agriculture but for our community as a whole,” said Kaleb Rathbone, an assistant commissioner to N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler since 2021 who oversees agricultural programs and small farms in Western North Carolina.
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Last November, Rathbone joined North Carolina Executive Director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency Bob Etheridge and Robert Bonnie, undersecretary for farm production and conservation at the USDA, at the WNC Regional Livestock Center, shortly after U.S. Agriculture Secretary and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack visited Asheville. All of them warned that the coming year could be a bleak one if farmers didn’t get help quick.
Rathbone, a Haywood County native, told The Smoky Mountain News that the erosion of farmland due to Helene, and the subsequent loss of productivity, was substantial.
“Everybody here seen firsthand the devastation that came from Helene across the state of North Carolina, but there were several disasters that impacted agriculture,” Rathbone said. “Our estimates are that approximately $5 billion was the loss, about $5 billion in agricultural value at the farm level last year. Farming is a challenging business as we all know, even in a good year, but then you throw in droughts, floods, hurricanes and all the above, it can be downright impossible to be able to continue operating without some kind of support.”
The General Assembly’s latest Helene relief bill, passed last month, included $311 million for agricultural and aquacultural producers who suffered verifiable losses in disaster-affected counties in 2024. The deadline to apply for disaster assistance is May 4, with disbursements expected by midsummer.
“We’re going through a difficult time right now,” said Rep. Mark Pless, who represents Haywood and Madison counties in the General Assembly and said that he expects to see more money to come from the General Assembly, both through the upcoming state budget and through unrelated bills.
“I guess the message that I want to convey to all the farmers is, we’re working as quickly as we can,” Pless said. “So we got about 23 counties with major damage. We have a lot of Christmas trees that are gone. We have a lot of farmland that’s gone. We have a lot of infrastructure, be it farms, tractors, things like that, we have a lot of farm homes that are gone.”
Adding Helene’s local damage to recent national trends noting the steady reduction in prime agricultural land means if some action isn’t taken to preserve agricultural resources, Americans will begin to take notice — from the grocery store to the kitchen table. Although various state and local programs are available, some at the breakfast are asking county government to do more.
At last year’s breakfast, Smart sounded the alarm over the rapid loss of farmland in the region. Farmland in Haywood County has decreased from nearly 80,000 acres four decades ago to less than 50,000 acres today, with 80% of prime farmland already lost. This decline is attributed to growth and development pressures, as North Carolina’s appeal as a top business destination fuels urban expansion just as tourism in the mountains squeezes the housing market and drives housing construction.
Statewide, the situation is equally alarming. At that same breakfast, Rathbone cited an American Farmland Trust study ranking North Carolina as the second most at-risk state for farmland loss by 2040, potentially losing up to 1.6 million acres.
Ryan Manning, then farmland preservation coordinator for Haywood County, warned that if those trends continue, an additional 4,400 acres — about 9% of the remaining farmland — could be lost.
Despite efforts like conservation easements and a $10 million annual allocation by the General Assembly to attract agricultural processing facilities, funding falls short. For instance, in 2024, Manning said that 100 applications for farmland preservation would require $60 million, yet only $20 million was available.
The issue hasn’t changed much since that 2024 breakfast, which has local farmers like Brandon James, of Crabtree, thinking creatively. James mentioned a state effort called the Local Agriculture Growth Zone.
“That’s where money raised by the counties or a nonprofit entity or whatever, the state will match that dollar for dollar. If we could get $100,000 or $10,000 or whatever from the county to go to some of these farmland preservation easements or pay legal fees, they can use the money to do anything to help preserve that,” James said, with Haywood County Commission Chair Kevin Ensley and Vice Chair Brandon Rogers looking on intently.
James added that the state will now match up to $2 million, Troxler had told him that a county down east had implemented a procedure whereby the back taxes from farmland that’s coming out of farm use would go into the state’s farmland preservation fund.
Afton Roberts, representing her family’s multigenerational farm in Swain County, has another idea — using a portion of money collected by county tourism development authorities to endow a dedicated preservation fund. Specifically mentioning Haywood County’s $3 million in annual collections, she said 15% of that would generate $450,000 a year.
Such use of TDA money isn’t likely possible right now due to legal requirements in how TDAs spend their money; however, Pless has filed a bill to abolish Haywood’s TDA and told The Smoky Mountain News he’d be open to reimagining how a reestablished TDA’s revenue could benefit locals more than it already does.
Just as without wild game sanctuaries and wild game laws there’d be no more game, Smart said, the same thing is happening to Haywood County’s farmland.
“We’re losing our rural character and I think we all try to keep some of it,” he said. “So that’s why I’m an advocate, to try to get some of these farmers and farms to hold on.”
