Farming Forum Aims To Address Concerns

With classes, exams and the Duke-UNC game to look forward to tonight, most UNC students are probably not concerned with the role farming plays in the lives of their fellow residents.

But members of the Orange County Board of Commissioners and representatives from environmental and agriculture agencies from across North Carolina will meet to prove that farming is not something that concerns just students from N.C. State University.

The Third Agricultural Summit/Farmer's Forum will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today in Schley Grange Hall in Hillsborough to discuss a variety of issues.

Cooperative Extension Services agricultural agent Karen McAdams said the forum is designed to allow residents to explain their needs.

"For one, we're hoping to give some of our farmers in Orange County a chance to share their concerns," she said.

"And our other goal is to talk about other issues that pertain to conservation."

Both environmental and agricultural issues will be discussed at the forum, McAdams said, including waste management and the changing markets in which farmers are forced to compete.

Farmers are having to deal with a transition in agriculture in North Carolina, Orange County Commissioner Barry Jacobs said.

"Tobacco is going out, hitting our small farmers," he said.

Growing concerns over the increased governmental role in the tobacco industry is just one of the many worries facing farmers in the new millennium, Jacobs said.

"Also, a nationwide reduction in prices and an increase in costs" is a primary concern for small farmers, he said. Rising fuel costs and decreasing market prices for goods are making it more expensive to continue producing goods and making as much of a profit, Jacobs said.

The agenda for the summit includes guest speaker Betty Bailey, executive director for the Rural Advancement Fund International. Bailey will speak to a panel including members of the Orange County commissioners and farmers and residents from in and around Orange County.

"(Bailey) will speak of strategies to deal with the end of this era of transition in North Carolina agriculture," Jacobs said.

A panel discussion moderated by Director of the Environment and Resource Conservation Department David Stancil will allow local and regional farmers to voice their opinions about these growing concerns.

Jacobs said, "Farmers from all other parts of North Carolina will be here for the summit in order to represent all of North Carolina's agricultural concerns."

The City Editor can be reached

at citydesk@unc.edu.