Business

Future of farming is imperiled, growers tell county commissioners

An overflow crowd of farmers turned out for a special meeting of the Board of Commissioners on the state of agriculture.

By Bill Moss, Published: February 8, 2024

Last Tuesday night farmers filled the 105-seat Steven D. Wyatt Auditorium, lined the walls and spilled out into the lobby. They were there to share their thoughts on the future of agriculture with the Henderson County Board of Commissioners, which had called a special meeting for that purpose.

The comments from 15 speakers strongly suggested that the future of farming is in peril.

“I’m a little disappointed that you guys underestimated us by not having a bigger space,” Linda Pryor, an Edneyville farmer, said. “We’re all at different stages in our farming careers and have different needs and different goals but I’m certain that at our core, no matter our differences, that we all have that same passion and appreciation for agriculture. We all need to come together to keep agriculture sustainable in the county.”

The meeting was an opportunity for farmers to express their views on a broader scale but also to air concerns about AgHC, the nonprofit agency that promotes farming, works to preserve farmland and recruits new agriculture investment.

AgHC’s executive director, Mark Williams, said agriculture is “approaching a $1 billion industry” in the county, supporting 5,400 jobs.

“Every dollar invested (in AgHC) is yielding now $4.38” in economic benefit, he said. A major threat is the loss of farmland, evidenced by the fact the county has lost 2,058 farm acres in the past two years.

A couple of speakers said they thought AgHC could improve its outreach to farmers.

“We’ve never been approached by AgHC,” said Don Ward, an apple grower and tractor dealer. “We’ve never been approached for any of our comments or (asked) if we needed anything.”

Bert Lemkes, general manager of Tri-Hishtil, a Mills River greenhouse operation, praised AgHC’s work.

“AgHC and specifically the director Mark Williams has been instrumental in getting our company established in Mills River,” he said. “We’re shipping products throughout the United States from South Florida to California. There’s a lot of farmers that have built up confidence in our business that they have switched their operation to our grafted plants.”

Without a farmland preservation program, growers said, many orchards could succumb to the pressure to sell to subdivision developers or for some other non-agriculture use.

“I think farm preservation we’re way behind on,” said Alan Ward, who grows grapes and apples for his winery and cidery. “There needs to be, in my opinion, an organization like Soil & Water — someone that’s in charge of what federal funds are out there.”

Freight is breaking farms

A sixth generation farmer, Judy Justice said shipping is breaking the growers.

“In years before, I sent out 25 million pounds of apples. Last year, 5 million,” she said. “It’s a big difference. Our apple business is really struggling. We have no processors here.”

Shipping apples to processors out of state has become cost prohibitive.

“The worst thing is they don’t want to pay the freight to get our apples to them,” she said. “The processor I send to has saved us many, many times. But this year, the freight was killing them. They paid out over a million dollars in freight for the crop.”

When Paul Shoemaker retired from the Mountain Horticulture Research Center 20 years ago, he “decided to become a farmer,” he said. He sells tomatoes and other fresh vegetables at three local farmers markets and six restaurants.

“During the summer months when we’re selling we have a hundred or more customers that repeatedly express their appreciation to be able to buy locally produced vegetables from us and many other farms,” he said.

“A concern that I have is, will the land be available to meet this increase in the future?” he said. “A couple of years ago, a vendor at two of the markets I sell at was looking for land in the county. It is just too expensive. So she moved to South Carolina, found that land there that was much cheaper and she lost all her customers locally. And we lost a good farmer.”

County Commission Chair Rebecca McCall assured the crowd that commissioners are looking at ways to help.

“Farmland preservation is something that we’re all talking about and trying to learn more about,” she said. “I was just in a meeting about that yesterday morning. …We’re also in the beginning stage of working on the 2024-25 budget” and considering “what kind of money do we want to invest in the farming community for that, if any, and how do we want to invest it. With farmland preservation on the horizon, it will be a topic of conversation for this year — a big topic of conversation.”