The Future of Farmland in North Carolina

I am really excited about having the three of y'all as a guest on this program.

And what is especially valuable about this conversation is that each of you brings a different perspective to the table.

Strategy, production, agriculture, research, and extension.

Those are the kind of collaborations for the future of agriculture.

It is really the heart of what NC Ag Leads is trying to accomplish.

So Ray, let me start with you.

For our listeners who may not be familiar with NC Ag Leads, Please talk to us about how this initiative came together and what the stakeholders across agriculture were telling you that made this work necessary.

Yeah, thanks again, Scott.

I think I'd start with, and Vicki's likely to start here too, but these here are challenging times is the phrase you continue to hear in the ag sector.

I think economically, in terms of return, we're hearing that conversation.

We hear that with regard to weather.

We have now had several years in a row recently where we have gone into 50 and 60 day streaks in the summer without rain in some parts of our state.

As we are recording this, we are clearly in drought conditions.

Right when corn was getting ready to bud out and tassel and just really, that's always a pressure, that weather piece.

I think the public policy environment has gotten more challenging as we have folks more and more removed from the farm.

And this is not me originally saying this, but others have said never has there been a time when there was less understanding and awareness of what it actually takes to make agriculture work and yet more enthusiasm about folks who are uninformed actually telling agriculture what to do.

So the electorate, the elected and the general community know less, I think, today than they ever have about agriculture.

And yet they've got all these ideas about what they expect from it.

And that kind of leads to another

point.

The markets are shifting for a lot of what we grow and produce and put on the market in North Carolina.

I think you can look at that a number of ways.

You can think all the way back to the end of World War II that we've been really focused on a conversation about productivity and efficiency.

I think that is important.

That has obviously fed the country.