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.
- “Lowes Foods steps up efforts to buy food directly from local farmers,” Greensboro News & Record: Brenda Sutton’s farm in Rockingham County is so small she calls herself a “hobby farmer.” But farming is keeping her busy these days, thanks to Lowes Foods. Her jams, jellies and shiitake mushrooms can be found on the shelves of three Piedmont Triad Lowes Foods stores as one of a number of small, local farmers and vendors from whom Lowes buys its produce and a variety of other products. …
- “Ag commissioner launches program to save hemlocks,” Hendersonville Lightning: Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler announced the allocation of seed funding for a new effort to restore North Carolina’s hemlock trees to long-term health. Hemlocks across Western North Carolina are being decimated by the hemlock woolly adelgid, an insect that sucks the sap of young twigs, which leads to tree death. …
- “Rain-hindered research confirms thrips could be cotton’s No. 1 insect foe,” Southeast Farm Press: The unrelenting rains of 2013 made for less-than-ideal conditions when it came to conducting certain on-farm research in the Southeast, but trials in North Carolina and Georgia confirmed what has been observed in earlier work on cotton thrips injury. …
- “First GAP-certified high school agriculture program in the state lets North Stokes students grow food for school system,” The Stokes News: The future of agriculture is growing at North Stokes High School. Literally. “More and more of the agriculture marketplace is starting to require GAP certification,” said Heather Barnes, a coordinator with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ N.C. Farm to School Program. She said that major retailers and grocery stores, as well as many chain restaurants and any North Carolina school system, will not buy produce that does not have GAP, Good Agricultural Practices, certification. “The students at North Stokes will now know what it takes to market in today’s market and that is not something you see in a lot of classrooms.” Those students, under the leadership of agriculture instructor Ben Hall, are the first in the state, and maybe the nation, to be learning in a GAP certified school program. …
- “April is for beer lovers in N.C.,” Winston-Salem Journal: As N.C. Beer Month begins, North Carolina has 100 craft breweries and brewpubs. That number has more than doubled — from 43 — in the last four years. A craft brewery is defined as a small brewery that makes 6 million barrels of beer or less in a year. The largest U.S. craft brewer, Boston Beer Co., the maker of Samuel Adams, produced about 2.5 million barrels in 2011. In comparison, Anheuser-Busch makes about 125 million barrels. But most craft brewers are much smaller than Boston Beer, often producing less than 10,000 barrels, and sometimes only a few hundred. Typically, they are independently owned businesses devoted to creating distinctive, innovative beers. North Carolina now ranks 10th in the country in the number of such breweries, and, as of 2012, it ranked 19th in beer production, at 159,033 barrels. Craft brewing is an $800 million industry in the state, accounting for about 10,000 jobs. …
- “China Temporarily Restricts U.S. Pig Imports, Export Group Says,” Bloomberg Businessweek: China, the world’s largest pork consumer, has put “temporary restrictions” on imports of U.S. pigs to prevent a swine disease from spreading to its herds, according to the Livestock Exporters Association of the USA. China isn’t issuing more import permits for U.S. pigs until the countries agree on testing protocol for porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, said Tony Clayton, president of the group. China can resume importing “fairly quickly” as long as “the U.S. agrees to some kind of testing protocol,” Clayton said. …
- “Vance County farmers market a long time coming,” Henderson Daily Dispatch: Community leaders arrived at the ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday offering applause, plaques and congratulations to Pete Burgess, the advisory board member who led the charge for the new facility, and everyone involved in the completion of the Vance County Regional Farmers Market. “It’s really amazing the level of support we received from the community,” said Paul McKenzie, Vance County Cooperative Extension agent. His organization, which remains a driving force behind the operations of the facility, hosted the ceremony. More than 100 people filled the farmers market to witness the facility’s release to the public. Many were optimistic about what it could mean for the region’s economy. “Vance ranks 88 out of 100 counties in production of fruits and vegetables,” said Dewitt Hardee, director of the N.C. Agricultural Development and Farmland Trust Fund, which provided more than $100,000 for the market. “I believe that this facility could put us in the top 50 before long.” …
- “Could U.S. tobacco farmers produce nicotine for growing e-cig market?” Southeast Farm Press: It is believed that the nicotine for electronic cigarettes, or e-cigs, comes from China, India and maybe Eastern Europe. “Why can’t American growers produce it here?” said Rod Kuegel, a burley and dark tobacco grower from Owensboro, KY. E-cigs are battery-powered devices that vaporize liquid nicotine solutions to simulate the experience of a conventional cigarette without the smoke. Kuegel said meetings and negotiations are going on this spring to see if this market could be developed, and he is sure that an experimental batch of liquid nicotine will be produced somewhere in the burley belt this year. …
- “NC Strawberries about Two weeks Late,” Southern Farm Network: We’ve all heard the saying … “I want ice cream,” but if you’ve lived in North Carolina any length of time, you’re ready to put winter away and see some North Carolina grown strawberries. NCDA regional agronomist Don Nicholson: “We have had a pretty cold winter and strawberries are about ten days to two weeks behind what they normally are. …
- “N.C. State experts to OK Dan River water for farms,” Greensboro News & Record: Soil scientists with N.C. State expect to report soon that farmers in Rockingham and Caswell counties can safely use water from the Dan River. It’s almost planting season for the dozen or so farmers who raise cattle and plant corn, soybeans and tobacco on lowland fields along the bends in the river. Water, wind, cold and heat are always a worry for farmers. On Feb. 2, the farmers got another headache when the river ran gray. …