RAFI consulted with the Attorney General’s office on this report, providing extensive recommendations and research, much of which appears in the final version. We support many of the reports’ findings and recommendations, but we do suggest modifications to some and substantial changes to a few. For details, please read our letter to the Division.

The Impacts on Landowners and Consumer Protection Issues report presents critical information for the people of this state. It clearly shows the complexity of this issue and the need for extreme care before moving forward with hydraulic fracturing in North Carolina. The safety of our land and people should be a prerequisite for the exploitation of our natural resources, not the other way around.

The report makes many recommendations to improve landowner protections. It highlights the lack of protections for landowners and identifies areas that need further study. It acknowledges that these issues are complex, and that more study and stronger recommendations may be needed in the future. While remaining neutral on hydraulic fracturing, the report states:

[I]mplications for landowners and consumers should not be overlooked or underappreciated. These serious risks extend not only to the landowners who lease their land for fracking‐related development, but to neighbors, communities, and the State.

The report focuses on several central issues including financial risks from leasing, increased landowner taxes, and impacts to land values. It emphasizes the need for landowner education to make sure our citizens are aware of these issues. The report also analyzes a wide range of land impacts from drilling and highlights the lack of legal protections for landowners. In many sections of the report the Division states that laws need to be expanded and strengthened to ensure fair protections for North Carolina’s citizens.

One of the most important parts of the report is what is not included. The report does not say that any state with gas drilling adequately protects landowners. Several of theDivision’s recommendations reflect some of the strongest laws in other states – yet landowners in these states have still been treated unfairly and seen big impacts on their land, finances, and personal rights. Much of the report examines current regulations on gas drilling, but it does not assess whether these regulations effectively protect landowners.

The research in the report is an important starting point for the discussion of landowner protections. But if we are going to be a model state and get this right, we need to put in place even stronger protections. We also need to take a closer look at issues where the Division asked for more information and research.

More information:

Read our full comments on the report.

Read the report.

You can submit by fax: 1-877-716-9998

You can submit by mail, post marked May 11th:

For information on meetings with attorneys to assist you in filing your claim, go to: https://www.blackfarmercase.com//Meetings.aspx or https://www.blackfarmercase.com//Consel.aspx

To determine if you are in the case OR make an appointment to meet with an attorney to file a claim,  call the claims Administrator at: 1-877-810-8110 (EPIQ)

For information or assistance, call the Federation of Southern Cooperatives:  1-800- 503-5678

For problems with the case, contact the Ombudsman: 1-866-686-8682

For more information: www.blackfarmercase.com or www.federationsoutherncoop.com

If you are a Class Member of this case, you may receive money from this Settlement. A Class Member must:

• Be a Late Filer or Late-Late Filer (i.e., you sent a written Late-Filing Request on or between October 13, 1999 and June 18, 2008 to the Court, the Facilitator, the Arbitrator, or the Monitor in the Pigford case asking to participate in the Pigford settlement);  and
• Have not already received a determination on the merits of your discrimination claim in Pigford. If you are a Class Member and the Court has said you may be eligible for an award under the Settlement you, or the person on whose behalf you are filing a claim, must meet ALL of the following criteria:

1. You are an African American;

2. You farmed or attempted to farm between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 1996;  3. You owned or leased, or attempted to own or lease, farm land between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 1996;

4. Between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 1996, you applied or attempted to apply to the USDA for participation in a federal farm credit or benefit program(s) and believe that you were discriminated against on the basis of race by the USDA in response to your request;

5. If you applied (i.e., not merely attempted to apply) for a loan or benefit program, one of the following occurred:

• • Were denied participation in a federal farm credit or benefit program(s); or
  • Participation was provided late, approved for a lesser amount than you requested, or burdened by restrictive conditions;
  • Received a loan with unfair terms; or
  • Did not receive appropriate loan servicing from the USDA.

6. You suffered economic or financial loss as a result of the USDA’s treatment of your application(s) for participation in a federal farm loan or benefit program(s) or as a result of inappropriate loan service by USDA; and

7. You complained of discrimination to an official of the United States Government on or before July 1, 1997 regarding USDA’s treatment of you.

If you are the heir or legal representative of someone who died who fits this description, you may file a claim for payment that would become part of the deceased person’s estate.

In 2008, the Farm Bill asked AFRI to make classical breeding a funding priority, but the overwhelming majority of federal research funds still go to developing patented varieties. A study by RAFI and the National Organic Coalition found that only one AFRI grant – out of 127 – had been awarded for classical breeding between 2009 and 2011. (Read RAFI’s blog post about it.)

If you live in a state with a Senator on the Agriculture Committee, we need you to help turn the tide. Find your Senator on the list below, and then call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224–3121, and ask to speak to him or her. Use this simple message:

Hello, my name is (name), and I am a constituent (or farmer, if you are one) from (your hometown). I’m calling to ask the Senator to support the Gillibrand Amendment to the Farm Bill, which would set aside 5% of AFRI research funds for classical, public plant and animal breeding. Can you tell me whether or not the Senator will support this amendment?

Then let us know what you found out! Email Michael Sligh at michael@rafiusa.org and let us know the results of your call!

Members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry:

Small changes to early drafts of the Farm Bill can make a huge difference in the future. Calls to these key Senators from their constituents – farmers and consumers – are the best way to make sure these Senators protect the interests of farmers and the public and fund seeds and breeds that belong to all of us, not just big companies.

If, like me, you don’t live in one of these key states, please help spread the word to your friends, and then hang in there. There will be plenty of need for calls and emails in the weeks ahead. Be sure you are following RAFI on Facebook and Twitter to receive the latest updates.

Those sections will outline some of the risks that drilling contracts present to landowners and farmers. They will also include recommendations on how the legislature can protect landowners from some of that risk. If you are thinking about signing a gas lease, we want to you to be able to know exactly what you are agreeing to and what the impacts will be on your land. We also want to make sure that companies, not you and other landowners they lease from, are responsible for any possible harm caused by their activities. You can find a lot of the source material for our recommendations in our online education packet.

For now, if you are in North Carolina, please take a look at the draft of DENR’s sections of the report, and then let them know what you think! Even though the section on landowner rights has not been released, you can still let decision-makers know how important your rights are to you. There are public comment sessions happening in the next few weeks:

• Tuesday, March 20th, at 6:30pm at the Wicker Center in Sanford
• Tuesday, March 27th, at 6:30pm at East Chapel Hill High School

More information about these meetings can be found on DENR’s website.

Your voice over the next few weeks will be critical as North Carolinians tell DENR and the Attorney General’s office that we support strong landowner protections.

Got questions? Want to get more involved? Find more information on our Mineral Rights page, or contact us!

Like all of our grantees, these farmers will share their experiences with other farmers, spreading new ideas for revitalizing rural economies. A 2011 study showed that the average Reinvestment Fund grant creates 11 new jobs and stimulates $205 of economic activity for every dollar invested within one year.

We’re excited to get to know each of these farmers better in the next year and share their stories with you. For now, read on below the jump for a taste of what they hope to accomplish:

Lindley Dairy is one of 34 farm enterprises to receive a 2012 grant. The family will use local, pastured milk to make mozzarella cheesecakes for sale to local restaurants and stores. Thanks to Debbie Roos and Chaham County Cooperative Extension Service for the photo!

Increasing access to fresh, local food

Mobile Markets

Nicole Spruil, a young farmer in Dare County, is bringing local food to the small communities and food deserts of the Outer Banks. She has teamed up with several other local farm to create mobile market. She’ll also be raising vegetable starts and helping her customers establish raised-bed gardens so that they can grow their own food.

Farm-to-School

Kids in Bladen County will have fresh peaches in their school lunch thanks to Jerry Dowless. Dowless will sell fresh peaches into two public school districts. He will plant peach varieties that bear fruit during the school season and document each step of the process, creating farm-to-school roadmap for other farmers.

Creative CSAs

Triad Farm-to-Table sells 2,500 boxes of local food from 12 – 15 farms each year. The group, coordinated by James Hester, will use grant funds to expand their logistics and marketing management capacity.

Customers of Smith’s Nursery Doorstep Market can customize and pay for their CSA boxes online each week. The farm will double CSA production and storage capacity on a farm where two generation of family members still work.

Rob Glover, of Market Fresh CSA in Nash County, will be able to expand his CSA from 90 to 250 members in the next year by installing an irrigation system that will let him increase his production acreag

Expanding healthy food production

Seth and Corey Saunders, two high-school age farmers in Chowan County, will test out season-extension technology that they designed. The boys already raise five acres of melons and sweet potatoes. They will install a new well and drip irrigation that will allow them to expand to seven acres, and will compare new low-tunnel row covers with a lower-cost system that they designed and share the results with their Future Farmers of America and 4-H peers.

Heirloom collards are the cornerstone for Keith Hollowell’s new enterprise. He will plant three acres of his family’s heritage collards and three acres of sweet corn for sale through local grocery stores and a road-side stand. Hollowell is a life-long tobacco farmer who will adapt old tobacco equipment for this new undertaking.

The empty air at the top of Meredith Leight’s greenhouses at Granite Springs Farm will soon be put to work. She will grow oyster mushrooms in hanging bags suspended in her high-tunnel greenhouse in Chatham County. She predicts that the mushrooms will thrive in the moist environment.

The Saxapahaw General Store has already gained national recognition for providing delicious, local food in a small Alamance County town. The Saxapahaw Farm and Business Collaborative, coordinated by Cozi Farm’s Suzanne Nelson, will improve local-food storage and marketing infrastructure and enable farmers to sell an even greater volume and diversity of products.

Jeremiah Dixon will expand production at Dixon Family Farms in Greene County, where he raises rabbits and hogs. He hopes that the equipment upgrades will enable him to lower prices and sell more food into his low-resource community.

New farmers in the thriving Triangle local food scene often have to wait years for a spot at a farmers’ market. The new South Durham Farmers Market, coordinated by Kathryn Spann, will provide a sales outlet for 37 farmers and include four cooperative slots for beginning farmers.

Innovating for sustainability

Sam Bellamy is bringing wind power to the farm. A new windmill will run a well pump and electric fence and put in 20 more acres of organic vegetables on Indigo Run Farm. He will use grant funds, USDA Rural Energy Access Program money, and federal and state renewable energy tax credits to offset the cost of investing in green energy.

Jason Smith describes his project on Fox Squirrel Farm as a “silvopasture.” He and his wife will plant fruit and nut trees on his family land and put up fencing to allow them to intensively graze chickens, turkeys, goats, and sheep in the same pasture.

Robert Jones will construct full mechanized, solar-powered low tunnel greenhouses on Jones Farm in Greene County. The low tunnels will enable Jones to double his production of organic vegetables. Jones is a graduate of the Breeze Farm Incubator who served in the military and worked as a computer programmer and systems analyst before returning to his farming roots.

Roller-crimper technology allows farmers to plant cover crops and then roll them down onto the soil, improving soil quality and water retention. Jason Shupig of Oak Bluff Farm in Montgomery County will test this no-till soil improvement method in hopes of adding sustainable pumpkin and gourd production to his farm despite very sandy soil conditions.

Ben Ketchie is will install a rotational grazing system on the Iredell County land where his grandfather farmed. Ketchie will continue the family business of raising milk cows for sale to local dairies, while lowering feed costs, increasing sustainability, and improving the health of his animals and land.

Morgan Milne will reduce feed and fertilizer costs on his New Hanover County farm, Red Beard Farms, by using a chicken tractor to raise hens for egg production directly over his vegetable plots during crop rotation.

Producing creative new products

Jicama, chayote, and passion fruit are more likely to be found in the exotic foods isle than the farmers market in North Carolina, but Felix Vargas will plant the traditional Latin American crops on the 75-acre, Cleveland County farm where he and his wife raise strawberries, blueberries, and wholesale vegetables. He will also process some of the fruit into sugar-free jam for diabetic customers. Vargas was raised on a farm in central Mexico, and worked as a crew boss for migrant farmworkers in North Carolina before becoming a farmer.

Mark Williams will establish a creamery and bottling facility for low-temperature-pasteurized milk and drinkable yogurt. Williams, who grew up farming dairy, tobacco, cotton, and grains, now operates a grass-fed dairy in Wilkes County.

Sisters Janice Lindley and Ann Campbell make mozzarella cheesecakes with milk from their family’s Chatham County dairy. The cakes should be appearing soon in local stores and restaurants.

Gary Sikes will breed heritage chickens and turkeys for sale to farmers in the Southeast on Bountiful Harvest Farm in Anson County.

Feed is the largest expense for most livestock farmers, and locally produced feed is rare. Charlie Beheler and Linda Johnston of South Mountain Farms will grind organic and chemical-free grains and beans into feed for their animals. They will also offer use of the equipment to other local farms.

Alex Draughow will diversify his Surry County tobacco farm by selling baled shavings to feed mills, poultry growers, and livestock farmer

Local food isn’t just for humans. Dale Thompson of Hilltop Angus Farms will make beef liver jerky for sale as dog treats, reducing waste and bringing extra income to his Montgomery County farm.

Charles and Jane Trivette will expand their production of partridge and chukar at C&J Farms to allow them to sell the game birds to customers and restaurants as well as game preserves.

The Community Honey House in Cleveland County will provide processing and packaging space and a pollination and hive health service for local beekeepers. The project is coordinated by Kim Hamrick.

Encouraging agritourism

Zane Sells of Clodbuster Farms in Forsyth County will convert an old tobacco shed into a storage facility, classroom, and CSA drop point.

The wedding business on the Fryar family’s Guilford County grain farm is growing rapidly. Gerald and Elaine Fryar will convert a large dairy barn into a climate-controlled wedding venue, making summer events possible and expanding the opportunity for their daughter to return to the farm.

Lowering costs

Brian Howard will be able to hire more labor and spend more time in the field because of his model CSA processing, sorting, and packaging facility at Howard Family Farm. It will enable him to efficiently sell produce on his farm.

John Blue is sourcing his own fuel from his farm. Highlanders Farm has been in continuous production since 1804. Blue will use a woodchip boiler to power his former tobacco greenhouses for off-season tomato production. He hopes the energy savings will enable him to keep the farm financially sustainable enough for him to pass it on to his young son.

Gene Cox, a former Johnston County tobacco farmer, will use new equipment to group, tag, and vaccinate his cattle for sale at online auction. The method, called alliance marketing, allows farmers to sell source-verified cattle at a higher price.

Stanley Hughes, one of the first certified organic tobacco growers in North Carolina, will build a model grading and packing shed at Pine Knot Farms. The shed will integrate with his organic and Good Agricultural Practices certifications. The shed will increase freshness and expand his production potential.

The Alexander Cattlemen’s Association will purchase equipment that will allow its members prepare beef cattle for sale at auction. Sharing the equipment will allow local farmers who converted tobacco land to cattle production to save money and increase farm income. The project is coordinated by Daniel Chapman.

Greg Foster, a former tobacco farmer, raises grapes for Duplin Winery on his Franklin County farm. He will install a solar-powered pump and piping to allow him to irrigate additional acreage from a stream on his farm.

This morning, NPR responded with their take: Local food is about food, and the USDA’s attempt to explain it in terms of jobs is an attempt to defend local food programs in a contentious political climate. The jobs argument, the article implies, is a tenuous one. “Hey, Locavores,” the title asks, “are you creating jobs?”

Well, with respect, our answer is a resounding “yes.”

Small businesses form in response to unmet consumer demand for a product. When they succeed, that creates jobs. In this case, those businesses are farms, and the product is fresh local food. The jobs are still jobs.

At RAFI, we know this first-hand. Our Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund gives small grants – an average of $10,ooo – to farm enterprises that are modeling creative new ways to make a living on the farm.

Last year, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro evaluated the impact of those grants over a three-year period. What they found was staggering.

• Each of our grants created an average of 11 new jobs within one year.
• For every one dollar awarded to a farmer, they traced $205 new dollars of economic activity in the state within one year.
• In total, the program awarded $3.6 million in three years to 367 farmers, created 4,100 new jobs, and had an economic impact of more than $733 million.

Why does it work? We believe it’s because farmers know their business, know their communities, and have a lot at stake. They already have equipment, buildings, land, and expertise that they can re-purpose. And there’s another benefit for rural economies: family farmers don’t pick up and move overseas.

The farmers in our program demonstrate that a little assistance can have a big impact. So when it comes down to evaluating the importance of local and regional food systems and the programs that support them, we think jobs are a great place to start. If you want to have a big impact on the economies of rural communities, it’s hard to find a better bet than a family farmer.

Hear these farm entrepreneurs' stories at www.rafiusa.org/ncfarmervoices. The farmers supported by our grant program include former tobacco farmers marketing purple sweet potatoes, a former contract poultry farmer who turned an old poultry house into a barn for her goats, a group of farmers forming a prawn-growing cooperative, and more.

Thanks to the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission for its support of the Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund.

Economics wonks, feel free to download a copy of the complete economic impact study.

The report details the ways that local food enterprises, with support from the USDA, have provided new income for rural communities, connected farmers to new markets, increased access to healthy food, and built relationships between consumers and farmers. Among its findings: Local food systems generate 13 farm-operator jobs for every $1million in sales. This supports what RAFI has seen through our farm grant program: Investing in local food systems and family farms pays off. It creates jobs and new economic activity in rural communities and throughout the economy.

The new Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass points farmers and other local food systems stakeholders towards successes and new resources in their area by mapping USDA-supported local-food-systems projects.

Along with the report, the program released a new mapping tool, the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass. In a webinar today, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan said that the name was chosen deliberately; the USDA hopes that the success stories and resources mapped out in the Compass will “help point us in the right direction.”

Take a look at the Compass, and see what you find out about local food in your area – and then let us know what you think!

She was a City Council member and mayor pro tem, a trustee of Duke University and the founder of the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, a board member of Lincoln Community Health Center and a major force behind the creation of the Nasher Museum.

She served as trustee, vice president and president of the Duke Endowment. She was involved in the creation of the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation, the Josiah Charles Trent Collection of the History of Medicine and the Mary Duke Biddle Scholarship.

Mrs. Semans helped found the Durham Arts Council and the N.C. School of the Arts. She was a champion of education and fought for civil rights and affordable housing.

As truly great a woman as she was, and as amazing as her achievements in improving the quality of life for all North Carolinians were, I find myself remembering my first direct interaction with her. Back in my days as a Duke student, I worked for Technical Services, and one of my jobs was running a sound board at the groundbreaking of one of the huge science buildings – big crowd, all major players and big money. I might as well have been invisible. As soon as the program ended, she walked directly through this crowd of powerful people to the back of the tent to thank and compliment us for our good work and spent a few minutes chatting with us. That will always be my impression of her – a woman who sought out and appreciated the invisible people. That night, every member of the crew would have moved heaven and earth for her. I still would.

Mary’s wide-ranging and fierce dedication to her community touched our work at RAFI, too. She was the Chair of the Duke Endowment board during the years when Duke began to support RAFI’s work. Under her tenure, that support enabled us to train rural clergy and reach out to farmers in crisis through their churches, get a strong start to start our Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Program, and see farmers through the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd. In the years since, her legacy can be seen in the Duke Endowment’s ongoing commitment, which has allowed us to provide mental health and suicide prevention training to rural clergy who serve contract poultry farmers, found and build the Come to the Table Project, and more. It’s no coincidence that these initiatives have enabled RAFI to support farm families whose struggles would have otherwise been invisible.

She will be missed.

Dudley has been a long-time ally of family farmers. Before taking the post at the USDA, he had been a friend of contract poultry growers for over 30 years – fighting for farmers in court and working with RAFI to get rid of binding mandatory arbitration.

Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack told the AP that the USDA will continue Dudley’s work for a fairer industry:

“President Obama and I believe fair and competitive markets are critical to the success of American agriculture, and Dudley has worked tirelessly to advance this cause. USDA looks forward to continuing this work on behalf of our nation’s producers,” Vilsack said in an e-mail to the AP.”President Obama and I believe fair and competitive markets are critical to the success of American agriculture, and Dudley has worked tirelessly to advance this cause. USDA looks forward to continuing this work on behalf of our nation’s producers,” Vilsack said.

We wish Dudley well, and we look forward to working with GIPSA going forward, as we join contract farmers in their continuing struggle to balance the power in agriculture and get the fair treatment that they deserve.

It’s that time of year when gardeners begin to plan their gardens and order seed for the growing season.  For some folks, the cost and time of starting plants can be prohibitive, and that’s where Grow and Share comes in. Based in Zebulon, Grow and Share donates over 20,000 seeds and starter plants to residents of the Triangle and eastern NC every year. The non-profit provides plants and educational workshops to families, churches, and organizations in exchange for a pledge from participants to share some of their garden’s bounty with their community. Participants can make requests for Grow and Share to raise particular plants in its greenhouses in Zebulon and Wendell, and the starter plants will be available by mid-April. Grow and Share’s mission is to provide support and resources to families and groups that will consume and share the harvest, so plants are not typically available for income-generating projects.

Grow and Share founders Kay and Frank Whately cite Leviticus 19:9-10, which reads, in part, “[D]o not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest…Leave them for the poor and the foreigner,” as part of the inspiration for their work; if each gardener who receives plants from Grow and Share allocates some of the harvest for families in need, there will be more healthy, fresh food available for participants to share with neighbors or bring to local food ministries. Grow and Share’s website has a list of churches and agencies that accept fresh produce from Grow and Share participants to distribute to local residents.

If you would like to learn more about how to request plants, participate in gardening workshops, or receive donations of harvested produce, email info@growandshare.org

You can also learn more on their website and in a story from Eastern Wake News.