The start of the year is always a busy time for agriculture as commodity groups gather to hear the latest updates and projections for the year. I want to put a plug in for the 20th Ag Development Forum being held Feb. 5 at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. The forum is held in conjunction with the Southern Farm Show.
Each year’s program includes an update on the economic outlook for agriculture and that will be part of the program this year as well. We will also have an update on the ag disaster assistance program, and I hope on the USDA Hurricane Helene agricultural block grant, too. As I write this, we are awaiting USDA’s approval of our distribution plan for the block grant.
Please mark your calendar for the morning of Feb. 5. Lunch will be served following the meeting. This year we will be meeting in a special events tent inside the gates in front of our Commercial and Education Buildings. The Holshouser Building is currently being renovated so this will be a temporary meeting space this year.
I mentioned an economic outlook report, and I wanted to share that we recently received updated Ag economic impact numbers from Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman at N.C. State University, and they were about what I expected them to be, based on the time period they are calculated from.
The latest economic impact numbers are based off 2023 USDA statistics. If you will recall, that year farmers were facing high input costs of fertilizers and other inputs in part due to the conflict in Ukraine.
While the total number did not grow this year, the good news is that the economic impact of North Carolina’s agriculture and agribusiness remains over $100 billion, $102 billion to be exact.
NC State Ag Economist Dr. Mike Walden, who retired several years ago, provided this information for years. This year the baton was handed off to Dr. Dorfman, who prepared this year’s report.
The last couple years coming back from the pandemic, natural disasters, droughts and other obstacles, it is not surprising that our growth is flat.
Diving into the numbers more, you will see that ag represents 13% of North Carolina’s total economic output, or $1 in every $8.
That might be hard to imagine if you live in one of our urban cities, but when you drive across the state, you see plenty of examples of agriculture and agribusinesses across the landscape.
This industry accounts for 965,000 jobs statewide, which represents 19% of the workforce or 1 in every 5 jobs.
Sometimes people only think about farmers when it comes to agriculture, but we have a big agribusiness sector in North Carolina with processing and food manufacturing, plus support industries.
To further break down the economic impact of ag industries:
- Food and related products: $58.9 billion.
- Tobacco and related products: $12.7 billion.
- Forestry and related products: $14.6 billion
- Fiber and related industries: $3 billion
- Green industry: $4.2 billion.
I am proud that North Carolina farmers and agribusiness owners not only feed us, but they also power our state’s economy.
Food starts somewhere and that is on a farm.
Yes, it eventually makes its way to a grocery store or farm stand or restaurant, but food doesn’t START at those places even though that’s where most people “get” their food from.
That is a very important distinction.
And, when you really think about that, you realize we ALL need our farms and farmers to be successful because they are the ones growing the food that we all enjoy.
Without farmers, we’d have a lot of empty grocery store shelves. We need to celebrate our farmers and agribusinesses every day.
‘From the tractor’ is published in the monthly Agricultural Review.