TheFirstFurrow

Wednesday, March 15, 2017 Farmers Flock to Jones Street for 2017 Agriculture Awareness Day

Ask most farmers and they’ll probably tell you they don’t like taking days off the farm. The job demands a lot of time and attention, and it’s critical that farmers stay on top of the day-in day-out tasks (like covering strawberries before a freeze) that lead to a successful year. But today, hundreds of dedicated farmers and friends of agriculture from communities all across the state have left their farms to do another kind of work—meeting with their legislators. That’s because today is NC Agriculture Awareness Day, a day for farmers and ag leaders to bring awareness to the legislature about the importance of agriculture in North Carolina. And it’s an essential task too; with so few legislators involved in agriculture, today’s rally is a valuable opportunity to help legislators understand the challenges that farmers face.

So what are some of those challenges farmers will be discussing with their legislators? Ask ten farmers and you might get ten different answers, but there are a few themes that rise to the top. This year, the key messages that Farm Bureau members will be delivering are:

Hurricane/Wildfire Recovery

  • Last year, the legislature appropriated $200 million in hurricane/wildfire relief.
  • But even though we’re many months removed from those disasters, many NC farmers are still recovering.
  • We support additional disaster relief funding during appropriations process.

Preserve Present Use Value Program

  • The Present Use Value Program provides qualifying farms with property tax relief by taxing the land based on its present use (farming or forestry) and deferring market value taxes.
  • This helps farms continue production and preserves farmland.
  • We support the preservation of this vital tax program.

Preserve Ag Sales Tax Exemptions

  • Eligible farmers are exempt from sales tax on farm equipment, inputs, and services.
  • This helps prevent double taxation on farm products and products derived from agriculture.
  • The legislature should maintain these exemptions if tax reform legislation is considered.

Healthcare Costs

  • Most farmers purchase health care in the individual market because they are often small businesses or sole proprietorships that don’t have access to group coverage.
  • Farmers are bearing the brunt of significant health insurance increases and struggle with inconsistencies in premium subsidies.
  • Farmers are also dealing with a sluggish ag economy and disaster recovery, further cutting into their bottom line.
  • Legislators should work to keep health care costs down.

North Carolina Agriculture is not only our state’s largest economic driver but it also supports more than 600,000 jobs—about one out of every six in the state. That’s why it’s important that legislators are kept up to date on ag issues; because if ag is hurting, then so is our economy.

NC Farm Bureau would like to thank all of the legislators who take time to meet with our farmers and hear their concerns.

 

Wednesday, November 9, 2016 Election Day Recap

With Election Day officially behind us, we thought we’d take a moment to recap how some of the key races in North Carolina turned out (or in a few cases, how they are likely to turn out). There’s an unbelievable amount of information to sift through and process before we can draw deeper conclusions, so we’ll save that for another day. Top line takeaways are that Republicans will control the White House, US Senate, and US House, and will maintain their supermajorities in the NC House and NC Senate, though the Governor’s Mansion could be occupied by a Democrat. Please note that there are a handful of races that are still “too close to call” despite a winner being listed because the State Board of Elections must complete its certification process — counting provisional and absentee ballots, conducting canvasses and recounts, etc. — before officially declaring a winner. Without further ado, here are your federal and state election winners:

Wednesday, June 22, 2016 Communication is Key

Being a successful farmer in the 21st century means more than owning a tractor and a few acres. It means having the ability to adapt to constantly changing situations and environments, staying up-to-date on cutting-edge technologies, and knowing how to effectively communicate with employees, the public, government officials, salesmen, scientists, and lawyers, just to name a few. What’s sometimes overlooked when we talk about all of the important things farmers do is the simple but essential act of farmer-to-farmer communication. It’s National Pollinator Week, so today we’ll take a closer look at one way in which farmers are working together using a new voluntary communication tool called DriftWatch that is gaining momentum across the US.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016 The Waterlogged Fall of 2015

There’s no such thing as a perfect year when it comes to agriculture, especially considering the diverse geography and climate of our state. There will always be uncertainty when it comes to the weather—will we have a freeze, drought or flood? But in 2015 we had all three in a single year.

We could spend days discussing the role weather played in crop loss last year, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a farm that didn’t experience some sort of weather event. But today, we’ll focus on the Waterlogged Fall of 2015.

If you need help remembering what we’re talking about, this picture should help jog your memory.

2015-flooding
Flooding at a farm in Hyde County.