Each week we’ll round up the latest N.C. agricultural headlines from newspapers across the state and country, as well as excerpts from the stories. Click on the links to go straight to each paper’s full story.
- “Find a local source for your Christmas tree this year,” News and Observer: I believe in supporting local any way I can. Sometimes, it’s by buying food from local producers. Sometimes, it’s by choosing a cup of coffee from the independent, local coffees shop instead of a chain. Sometimes, it’s by going directly to a local winery to buy wine instead of buying from a discount wine chine. And sometimes, it’s by paying a little more for my Christmas tree at a local tree farm instead of going to the nursery center of the big box hardware store to grab one. …
- “Young farmer just loves his work,” Winston-Salem Journal: The season is over, the cotton harvested. Time to take it easy, right? Justin Smith just laughs. “You don’t get much time to take it easy in this business,” he says. “There’s always going to be something to do.” That’s why Smith, Cumberland County’s 2009 Young Farmer of the Year, sometimes seems anxious when he’s talking. He’d rather be doing. The 24-year-old N.C. State grad raises crops on more than 1,400 acres of land scattered over three counties. During the growing season, he splits his time and interest between cotton, soybeans, tobacco and peanuts if the market is good. …
- “NC Farm Bureau meeting harvests rural concerns,” Winston-Salem Journal: North Carolina’s largest farm organization is looking back on the year’s harvests and looking ahead to policies affecting agriculture next year. The North Carolina Farm Bureau started its 74th annual meeting in Greensboro yesterday. The group that says it represents the interests of half a million of the state’s farm families will hear today from Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Miller and Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss. …
- “NCDOA To Offer Food Marking Workshop,” Carolinadaybreak.com: Food entrepreneurs can learn more about marketing their products or expanding their business through a one-day workshop offered by the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. “Food Marketing in the Real World” will take place Tuesday, Jan. 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in Room 128 in the Haynes Building on the A-B Tech Enka Campus in Asheville. …
- “Roadside markets rev up in North Carolina,” Southeast Farm Press: A lot of good things are happening with fruit and vegetables and other local products, and if you have suitable land and can develop a sound marketing plan, you can take advantage of them, said Steve Troxler, North Carolina commissioner of agriculture. “More and more people are paying attention to where the foods they eat are coming from,” Troxler told Southeast Farm Press in an interview at the recent North Carolina State Fair. “They prefer local products, and they prefer to know the farmers that produce them. As a result, most of our state farmers’ markets are bursting at the seams!” …
- “Fake trees bad for economy, environment says Troxler,” News 14: People in North Carolina are rallying against artificial Christmas trees, saying they not only hurt the state’s economy but are bad for the environment. “Artificial trees are the biggest enemy of Christmas tree farmers in North Carolina,” said Steve Troxler, the state’s commissioner of agriculture. Troxler says not only do artificial Christmas tree purchases slice into the budgets of almost 1,500 farmers tending some 30,000 acres of Christmas tree farms around the state, but the polyvinyl chloride version of the holiday tradition is bad for the planet. …