**This presentation is an exhibit component that was made available for sharing, please note that there is no audio present.**
From the planting of grains by Indigenous Americans to the cultivation of tobacco and cotton, soybeans, lavender and sage, to the care of livestock-through times of hard labor, human toil, and encroaching development, to the introduction of primitive and now modern machinery-farming has been a mainstay for residents of northeastern North Carolina.
According to the State Agriculture Overview, in 2021 there were over 45,000 farms operating in North Carolina with 8.3 million acres being farmed. Soybeans dominated the harvest with over 1.65 million acres planted. As of December 2022, over 1,500 of these farms have been placed on North Carolina’s Century Farm registry, with 186 of these farms located here in the Albemarle region. Farms that have applied for inclusion must have been owned by the same family for over 100 years. Gates County has the largest number in our region with 48. Over 100 farms in the state have received their certificate as a Bicentennial Farm. Four are within the Albemarle region.
“Drive a few miles outside our large, urban cities and you will find the North Carolina I love and grew up in - cattle grazing in green pastures, fields of corn, soybeans, cotton and tobacco, apple and peach orchards, roadside farm stands, local grills and restaurants serving country cooking harvested fresh from the land - rural North Carolina. There’s an energy to small towns and rural communities that revolves around the planting, tending, and harvesting of crops; high school sports; Sunday church; and relaxing evenings on a front porch. In these places, agriculture and agribusiness fuel the economy and keep the economic engine humming.
With 1,500 Century Family Farms and over 100 Bicentennial Farms in the state, you can clearly see that North Carolina farmers and agricultural communities are resilient and remain committed to feeding our country and the world. We should all be grateful to them for that level of dedication and perseverance, because their success means North Carolinians have access to a fresh, safe, and affordable local food supply. Our lives are better everyday thanks to their hard work.”
----Steve Troxler, Commissioner of Agriculture
For more information on Century Farms, please visit:
www.ncagr.gov/paffairs/centur...
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Museum of the Albemarle or the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.