As the state prepares to hand down its budget for the next fiscal year, the biggest advocate for local farmers is bracing for unexpected cuts.
Operating mainly via state-supported grants, the Piedmont Food and Agricultural Processing Center will serve as an incubator for area farmers and food entrepreneurs when it opens in June.
But the N.C. House of Representatives budget that progressed to the N.C. Senate on May 5 could make the center’s job much more difficult by calling for the complete elimination of the project’s largest supporter, the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission.
Noah Ranells, agricultural economic development coordinator for Orange County, said the center could face forfeiting up to $75,000 if the budget passes as it currently stands. This funding was intended for personnel, operations and maintenance, he said.
“I don’t know why — when you have something good — why you stop it,” he said. “I know we have to balance our checkbooks, but this funding has been critical for so many local entrepreneurs.”
Ranells said if a budget that cuts the program’s funding does pass, the center will seek to advance the spending of the funds it has been allotted.
“There really isn’t another replacement for funding in the state,” he said. “There are some private foundations that we could approach, but they cover a very broad range of programs, and the amount of funding available is significantly less.”
Jeff Jennings, program officer for the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, said the House budget calls for the phasing out of his organization and the 15 to 20 grants that would still be under way by the end of December.
The fund has been in operation for 10 years and currently has a staff of three, all of whom would lose their jobs if the House budget comes to fruition, Jennings said.