Building a better Christmas tree: Research station aims to provide world’s best firs
Like any other farmers, Christmas trees growers in Western North Carolina are always looking for ways to grow more and better product.
No smoke without buyers: Research explores cigar wrapper tobacco as cash crop for mountain farmers
On a perfectly sunny and gloriously cool July morning, Tucker Worley starts up the John Deere golf cart and takes off down the gravel road.
Tobacco’s Haywood County heyday
Slowly meandering through Haywood County’s tranquil farmlands, the winding two-lane mountain road rises and falls as behind each bend it reveals rustic panoramas dotted with far-off homesteads.
‘Twice the work’: Farmers report higher-than-expected 2020 sales, but also higher costs
When spring sprung in 2020, so did the Coronavirus Pandemic, forcing farmers to make life-altering decisions in the face of an unknown future. A recently published survey of Southern Appalachian farmers shows that those decisions built a reality that was better than anticipated but still full of challenges.
Female farmers survive a challenging year
By Laura Lauffer • Contributing writer | During the holiday season, we often recognize and appreciate the farmers in our community for the abundance of food on our tables. Three women farmers in the region shared their farming experience during this challenging year, what it means to them to farm as women and how they continued to grow and distribute their goods to the community in the challenging times of COVID.
A Clear Contrast — The NC Agriculture Commissioner Race
By Boyd Allsbrook
Agriculture has always been an integral part of the North Carolina culture and economy. Every year, farming and agribusiness bring in over 90 billion dollars—a sixth of the state’s net income. Here, more than in most states, it matters who we elect to oversee this massive industry.
President Trump thanks Mills River business
President Donald Trump made an appearance in Mills River on Monday, touting a food program designed to reduce food insecurity and retain jobs in North Carolina’s critically important agriculture sector.
Planting for a pandemic: Agricultural community navigates through COVID-19 crisis
For farmers and agriculture businesses across Western North Carolina, spring is the time to plan and plant for the green season ahead, but uncertainty cultivated by the COVID-19 crisis is complicating that process, often in devastating ways.
Agriculture commissioner election about more than just farming
From the mountains to Manteo, it’s easy to see that agriculture is North Carolina’s largest industry, but while driving through or flying over this vast state it’s much harder to see the challenges that threaten it.
Legislature to ban smokable hemp in N.C.
Hemp has only been legal in North Carolina for a couple of years, but already the plant is presenting an issue in the criminal justice system that the legislature is still trying to iron out.
