TheFirstFurrow

Last week, the 2017-18 General Assembly opened this year’s session, and in a few weeks they will dig in on their new legislative agenda. As you probably know, Republicans hold a 74-46 majority in the NC House and a 35-15 majority in the NC Senate. In the NC House, there are 19 new members, seven Democrats and 12 Republicans; in the NC Senate, there are five new members, all of whom are Republicans.Demographic information is important to understanding the composition of the legislature. Instead of looking at the usual race or gender breakdown, we decided to take a look at another bit of demographic information: occupation. Based on NC House and NC Senate Clerk Reports, the leading occupations are attorney, business owner, real estate broker, business executive, and consultant.

So how many farmers are there in the legislature?

The holidays are finally here, and that mean many of you either already have or soon will be decorating your Christmas Tree. What you may not realize is just how lucky we are here in North Carolina to have a large, thriving community of Christmas tree growers. In fact, North Carolina Christmas Trees are so famous they have been selected as the White House Christmas Tree a dozen times since 1970. So this week, in the spirit of the season, we’re lighting up the NC Christmas Tree Industry!

Written by Dr. Randy Woodson, Chancellor of North Carolina State University.

This Saturday, November 19 at Carter-Finley Stadium, the Wolfpack not only play host to the Miami Hurricanes, but we will also be celebrating our 4^th annual Ag Day, a time to recognize the many contributions that agriculture and our farmers make to our state. Agriculture built North Carolina, and people around the world depend on what’s raised and grown right here at home.

NC State University and the faculty and staff of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences work hard with partners across North Carolina to ensure our state’s agriculture remains strong. Because of these combined efforts, remarkable things are happening.

Self-driving cars have been a hot topic for the past couple of years or so, with companies like Google, Uber, and Tesla doing some serious work to advance the autonomous vehicle concept. But despite the attention and the progress that’s been made, the world of driverless cars is still at least a few years away.

Meanwhile, out in the fields of rural America, farm equipment has been driving itself for the better part of two decades. Companies like John Deere, Case IH, Autonomous Tractor Company, and New Holland have been developing auto-steer and GPS-guided equipment that has helped define the future of precision agriculture. Want to see it in action?

Each year, thousands of barbecue lovers descend upon the “Barbecue Capital of the World”, Lexington, NC, to taste some of the best barbecue in the nation. In 2016, it is estimated that more than 150,000 are expected to attend the nationally recognized 33^rd annual Lexington Barbecue Festival this Saturday from 8:30am to 6:00pm.

But, what makes Lexington barbecue so special?

This year’s election is about a month away, and with candidates finalizing their messages and making one last push towards election day, we thought it would be a good time to remind everyone just how important agriculture is to our state.

Sources: NCDA&CS, USDA NASS, NCSU CALS

When most people think of agriculture they envision row crops, large tractors or animals like cows and chickens. But at North Carolina Farm Bureau we recognize that our state’s great heritage of feeding the world goes beyond the land through our aquaculture and seafood industries. North Carolina produces some of the finest seafood in the world ranging from trout in the Great Smoky Mountains to blue crabs in the Outer Banks. Many coastal communities depend on the seafood industry to create jobs and support their local economy, but the seafood and aquaculture industries support thousands of American jobs throughout the seafood supply chain.

This weekend, seafood lovers from all over will head to Morehead City to celebrate our great seafood industry at the NC Seafood Festival. The event, which begins this Friday, September 30^th and runs through Sunday, October 2^nd, will feature live music, great food, cooking demonstrations and even a boat show. The NC Seafood Festival takes place each year to “promote the positive social and economic impact of the seafood industry on the citizens of North Carolina.”

More information about the NC Seafood Festival is available at www.ncseafoodfestival.org.

Written by Dan Gerlach, President of the Golden LEAF Foundation.

The Golden LEAF Foundation was created to ensure to ensure there would be dedicated resources to help transform the economy of rural, tobacco-dependent and economically distressed communities in North Carolina.

During my more than 20 years in North Carolina and my almost eight years as President of Golden LEAF, there’s no doubt in my mind that the heart and soul of the innovation, creativity, risk-taking, vision, and significance of North Carolina can be found in the farmer and grower.

Earlier this year, the Golden LEAF Board of Directors stepped out of our usual grantmaking processes to create a fund to support the development of major industrial sites across North Carolina. This fund would reduce the time it takes a big manufacturer to be build a plant and hire North Carolina workers, exporting product all over the United States and all over the world. With this $25 million, there would be no requirement that a company be committed, but rather faith that this seed corn would facilitate the location of good-paying manufacturing jobs to North Carolina. Manufacturing has long been part of rural North Carolina’s past, and certainly important to its future – though in a different way.

So it should be no surprise that our Board of Directors made one of the biggest commitments in our history – $45 million – to ensure that a facility on NC State’s Centennial Campus in Raleigh to house the Plant Sciences Initiative would be built. Manufacturing and agriculture are the two great workhorses of our rural economy, and are a major part of our future as well.