Nearly 300 million acres of American farmland is expected to change hands over the next 20 years, and a new program from the American Farmland Trust called “Land Transfer Navigators” aims to help farmers and landowners retire with confidence as they help new farmers access land. 

An annual waters summit hosted by a pair of North Carolina congressmen brought together local, state and federal administrators, experts and elected officials who spent a lot of time looking back at the sad recent legacy of flood control, mitigation and recovery efforts in the state — hampered by funding anxiety, ensnarled in bureaucracy, stressed by the impact of growing populations on aging infrastructure and impeded by way too many government agencies on way too many levels that are all somehow siloed yet still tangled up like fallen trees in a raging river. 

The 21st annual Business of Farming Conference is coming up Saturday, Feb. 24, at the A-B Tech Conference Center in Asheville. 

Buddy and Janice Cochran are used to seeing things through. 

Haywood County native Kyle Miller has moved into the top leadership position at the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville, after his predecessor Will Morrow retired following more than 30 years with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The N.C. Tomato Growers Association will conduct an August referendum on assessments per harvested commercial tomatoes.

North Carolina apple growers will vote Tuesday, June 27, in a referendum conducted by the N.C. Apple Growers Association regarding assessments for apples sold to first purchasers in the state.

When Cheryl Hillis started managing vacation rentals in Haywood County 15 years ago, Airbnb didn’t exist, reservations were made with phone calls and mailed checks, and she lived nowhere near Western North Carolina. Hillis was the face of Buffalo Creek Vacations, but she took reservations and managed payments from whichever town her military husband and their four boys lived at the time.

A car rolls up the gravel driveway to the barn that serves as the main headquarters for KT’s Orchard and Apiary in Canton, and Kathy Taylor — better known by her initials, KT — drops what she’s doing to greet the new visitor.

When Gary Griffith woke up a rainy Tuesday on Aug. 17, 2021, he never imagined that by the next morning, the 12 acres of green peppers he’d grown along the Pigeon River in Bethel would rest in drifts miles downstream, the unofficial symbol  of the catastrophic tragedy that was Tropical Storm Fred.