Each week we round up the latest N.C. agricultural headlines from news outlets across the state and country, as well as excerpts from the stories. Click on the links to go straight to the full story.
- “Headed to the Got to Be NC Festival? Some tips,” WRAL: It’s a big weekend with two major festivals in Raleigh: Artsplosure and the Got to Be NC Festival. I’ll tackle the Got to Be NC Festival at the N.C. State Fairgrounds today. …
- “NC’s Farm to School Program expands fleet with $1.2 million grant,” Southern Farm Network: On Tuesday, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, along with North Carolina Department of Agriculture announced a grant to benefit the NC Farm to School program. …
- “Editorial: Public backs local land conservation,” Asheville Citizen-Times: People across Buncombe County and across the state are urging conservation of green space. There are no times like bad times to preserve these irreplaceable resources. …
- “Change to gas pump labels coming in June,” Richmond County Daily Journal: Starting June 1, consumers will notice changes to the way ethanol-blended gasoline is labeled at their local gas station. …
- “State to improve safety at DuPont Forest,” Hendersonville Times-News: Bev Parlier first experienced what is now DuPont State Recreational Forest back in the early 1990s, when there was a chain running across the Little River above High Falls and no covered bridge. …
- “N.C. prepares for swarm of Africanized bees,” Wilmington Star News: If it weren’t true, the history of the Africanized honey bee would sound like the plot from a B horror film. A 1956 research experiment with African bees in Brazil goes wrong, releasing the bees into the wild. The African bees mate with European honey bees – the bees most commonly seen in North Carolina – to produce Africanized honey bees. …
- “Strawberry crop expected to last into June,” News & Observer: We got a note from Deborah Weschler with the N.C. Strawberry Association that farmers are predicting the strawberry crop will continue into June. …
- “Fresh from the farms: North Carolina farmers markets are open for business,” Fayetteville Observer: Craving fresh vegetables from local farms? North Carolina has you covered. Farmers markets have been opening for the season in recent months, offering residents produce and more from local farmers. …
- “Chiquita likes its Charlotte home, seeks fresh brands,” Charlotte Observer: As his company moves to Charlotte, CEO Fernando Aguirre is trying to reshape Chiquita Brands into something more than a purveyor of bananas, an iconic but low-margin fruit. On Monday, during an interview with the Observer, Aguirre said Chiquita is expanding its brand into new products. …
- “North Carolina’s Irish potato growers approve assessment,” Perishable News: Commercial Irish potato growers in a nine-county area in the northeastern part of the state agreed to renew an assessment program that supports promotional and research work of the N.C. Potato Association Inc. The vote was passed unanimously in a recent referendum. …
- “USDA projects record breaking corn crop in 2012,” Southeast Farm Press: U.S. corn farmers are on course to shatter production, yield and supply records according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released May 10. Projecting a record production of 14.8 billion bushels with record average yields of 166 bushels per acre, the report provides an extremely positive initial assessment of the 2012 corn crop. …