Farming

The Sandhills AGInnovation Center works to nurture rural farmers in Richmond and Montgomery counties, while connecting them to urban markets.

“The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.” President John F. Kennedy To say that agriculture is important in North Carolina would be an obvious understatement. Agriculture and agribusiness, including food, forestry, and fiber, is the number one industry […]

They seem to pop up each summer like wild onions in the lettuce – small farmers markets around Charlotte selling produce that might or might not be locally grown. Some last barely a season, while others put down roots and continue for years. They’re part of a farm-to-city regional economic system that includes the large […]

Agriculture and agribusiness account for one-sixth of North Carolina’s economy and employees, and more than 17 percent, or $84 billion, of the $482 billion Gross State Product. It’s no wonder farmland preservation is viewed as important to the future of our state. One way agricultural lands in our state are being protected is through Voluntary […]

Although North and South Carolina are urbanizing, with fast-growing cities and suburbs, agriculture remains a major piece of the economy for both states. Agriculture contributes $78 billion to North Carolina’s economy and $42 billion to South Carolina’s. It’s fairly well-known that North Carolina is a major turkey producer (No. 2 in the nation). But what […]

During one of my college English classes, the professor told us Southern literature is distinguished by a heightened sense of family, history and place. (In a cheeky paper published years later, another UNC professor offered evidence to suggest the signifier can actually be reduced to a single entity: the presence of a dead mule.) Recently, […]

Talk of the Towns is a PlanCharlotte series visiting planners from the 14-county Charlotte region. This installment takes us to Iredell County. This county of 162,708 people covers a lot of ground – from Charlotte suburbs on Lake Norman shores, to an older industrial county seat of Statesville, to rural communities in the northern part […]

Is “urban agriculture” possible in a city like Charlotte? Can backyard chickens and rooftop gardens solve urban hunger? The public will get a chance to consider those questions – and sip martinis crafted from local ingredients – at the June 13 KEEPING WATCH Clean Martini Screens. The event, free and open to the public, will […]

Where there once were weeds, there is now a farm field, planted in potatoes, broccoli and greens. Where there once was a defunct greenhouse, there are now floating trays bursting with lettuce, fed by water circulating through a tank of tilapia. A year has passed since Friendship Gardens’ Henry Owen and his team of enthusiastic […]

The approaching holidays make it a busy time in many offices, but for Kevin Redding’s small staff, this year it’s unusually hectic. That’s because the Piedmont Land Conservancy, where Redding is executive director, is scrambling to close a pile of land-preservation deals before the end of the year. The same is true at other regional […]