agriculture snapshot

3,698 Jobs in 2017

4,409 Jobs in 2022

19% Job Growth

711

2017-2022 Change in Jobs

$35,114

2022 Average Annual Wage

Excluding supplements

N/A

Payrolled Business Locations in 2022

The overall concentration of jobs in the 18-county region was on par with the national average in 2022.

Growth of 19% from 2017 to 2022 outpaced the state’s overall 1% change.

Self-employed jobs are included in the estimates.

Source: Lightcast, 2023.1

“There are some new farming businesses in the area, and many want to be more connected to the community,” Hart said. “Many are homesteaders who want to have and enjoy this lifestyle and sell what they are growing to their local communities; there’s a ‘back to the land’ movement coming here. It’s more of a lifestyle than getting rich, and we continue to hear new, different, and collaborative stories from our local farmers.”

Support for Farming Businesses Supports Entire Communities

WNC Ag Options is a program that delivers grants to a wide variety of agricultural businesses in 20 WNC counties. Executive Director Jennifer Ferre said that these grants come from the NC Tobacco Trust Fund, an organization created out of the master tobacco settlement to help put money back into communities affected by their transition out of producing tobacco.

“This program is unique in that it puts money directly into the hands of farming businesses,” Ferre said. “The Tobacco

Trust fund can’t do that, so we help to facilitate the process as a flagship program for the Trust Fund.”

Though most farmers were no longer growing tobacco when the program launched in 2004, the goal of WNC Ag Options is still to help diversify farms, create more efficiency, and keep farms in farmland where agriculture is part of the cultural heritage and a big part of life for many residents. Ferre said through the program’s grants and business education for farmers, many small family farms can have a better opportunity to be successful.

Grants are available to farmers on a yearly cycle, according to Ferre. The program hosts information and outreach sessions, then applications are due in the fall. Leadership tries to make decisions for who the grantees will be by the end of the year so farmers can get going at the start of the following year.

“It’s a competitive application process,” Ferre said. “We receive between 100 and 120 applications each year and award anywhere from 30 to 40 grants.”

The program developed an evaluation system and eligibility requirements to help determine which businesses are in the greatest need of these grants, according to Farre. A scoring system based on five questions helps decision makers learn how a grant will help farmers in the short and long term, how they interact with the agricultural community, and how their plans may be replicated in other businesses.

“It’s not necessarily a needs-based grant,” Ferre said. “It’s based on the highest potential for the biggest benefit for these farmers as well as their employees and their community. We’re looking for people ready to scale up, and looking at how a grant up to $8,000 can make a huge difference. We love seeing how more families can be involved as they scale, how more people can make a living, and how more people can be impacted by the growth of these farms.”

The dollar amount of each grant ranges from $4,000 to $8,000 depending on what the businesses are asking for in their application. Grantees must also agree to a 10% cash match for the amount of money they receive. “This shows they are putting some skin in the game for a project that will be beneficial,” Ferre said.

Submitting a business plan is required for the grant process, according to Ferre. Through feedback, they have found that grant recipients really appreciated having that help. Placing focus on running the farm as a business can be a key factor in creating that farm’s success.

WNC Ag Options also developed a network of support systems, beginning with an orientation for grantees at the beginning of each year. There are also workshops to help farmers develop business plans, and businesses are also paired with support organizations like the NC Community College’s Small Business Centers, Mountain BizWorks, and the Small Business and Technology Development Center.

“We all work together to help these growing agriculture businesses get their needs met,” Ferre said. “Grantees get this benefit as part of their award. We want them to be successful, and we feel good about helping create a long-term impact on the community in this way.”

Ferre said grant recipients are followed very closely during their first year, and she thinks it’s amazing that so many farms are so successful. She said 80% of some farmers markets are former Ag Options recipients, and 40% to 80% of Appalachian Sustainable Agricultural Project’s yearly farm tour locations are at grantees’ farms.

“Not everyone is successful though, and that is okay too,” she said. “Some of these business plans are very innovative, and people are taking risks.”

Many grantees are beginning to work with other businesses as well as creating more jobs and having the ability to pay living wages to their staff, according to Ferre. There is a ripple effect in the upswing in the value-added aspect of farming businesses, and she is seeing many businesses make more money than simply selling raw materials. Farmers are making vinegars from apples, infusing chocolates with their products, or supplying herbs to local breweries, and she said creativity and trying new ways of doing things is really good for farming businesses.

“Agriculture is North Carolina’s biggest industry, and it’s important to support that because it’s linked to other issues like food security, nutrition, and health,” Ferre said. “It’s about the entire region being healthy and successful.”

A Hub of Agricultural Research Supports Many Regional Farms

The Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center, a facility housing a wide variety of crop research programs, is the largest hub of off-site faculty and staff of NC State University.

The MHCREC has been in Mills River since 1959 and comprises 397 acres. With 70 permanent researchers at the facility and more than 100 researchers during the high season, the faculty and staff represented 20 different countries in 2022.

According to Interim Director Jessica Edney, there are three main projects as well as a variety of smaller ongoing research projects. The main three include a hops continued on next page breeding program, an industrial hemp study, and a Christmas Tree program that involves work with Christmas Tree farms in the region’s High Country.

Other projects involve herbs like goldenseal and ginseng, vegetables, bioenergy research with grasses and trees, and pollinator studies with the NC Department of Transportation to determine the best blends of pollinatorattracting flowers that are planted along roadsides across the state.

Researchers share their results on the facility’s website so local farmers can use the information to control pest populations and diseases like apple blights, and improve the effectiveness of growing methods.

“Researchers make recommendations, and we disseminate that information to local extension agents,” Edney said. “The research is interpreted and posted online, which can help farmers lower the numbers of pesticide applications, save money and labor, and minimize environmental impacts.”

Other major research crops involve apples, ornamental trees, and tomatoes. “Apple research is critical because Henderson County is the largest apple producer in the state,” Edney said. “There is also a tomato breeding program; about 75% of tomatoes along the entire East Coast have DNA roots from this facility.”

The facility’s ornamental tree program led by Dr. Tom Rainey develops new nursery plants. There are unique and new species introductions of varieties like dogwoods, hydrangeas, or maples that may be a new shade or produce a new color of blooms, according to Edney. Some may create a non-invasive variety, or research might encourage plants that originally grew better in other environments to grow well in the conditions here in WNC.

The MHCREC’s Walgenbach Entomology Lab has conducted pest management research since 1987, and the type of research depends on what problems the industry is experiencing at the time.

“Right now there are concerns about stink bugs,” Edney said. “We also look at ambrosia beetles, predatory mites, or any pests causing major issues for farmers. We grow vegetables and apples here on the farm to study these pests, and research is sometimes also done at local farms.”

Breeding hops is also a trendy research topic, according to Edney. A number of local breweries want to find a variety that will grow well here, and finding a variety to handle the region’s conditions has been tricky.

A new aspect in their research of Southern Appalachian apples involves growing apples on a trellis system. Dr. Tom Kon is the leader of that research, and findings include better yields, easier management of pruning, picking, and pesticide applications, and an increase in safety for farm employees.

A new produce training facility used primarily by Kon focused on various ways to be safe in handling produce.“There are lots of produce handling requirements within the USDA and the NCDA,” Edney said. “Regulations can be daunting for new farmers and their employees to keep up with. Here, the Extension Service helps put this into layman’s terms for farming businesses to understand.”

Not only does each project leader touch a variety of local farms with research findings, the MHCREC has also invited over 8,000 visitors to over 200 events, acting as a living and breathing teaching research facility providing invaluable information to farmers in the area, according to Edney. There are workshops, training, classes, and engagement with the Extension Service, and school groups are welcomed throughout the year. An annual public MHCREC Field Day event also allows members of the community to see firsthand what types of projects are currently underway.

“We are proud of the work and proud to showcase and advocate for the research being conducted here,” Edney said. “It’s a wonderful place to be.”

Maintaining Polk County’s Rural Character Through Agricultural Economic Development

According to Polk County’s Agricultural Economic Development Director Dawn Jordan, Polk County has a unique philosophy for economic development.

Jordan said a survey was sent to the county’s citizens which asked what they feel is the most important thing for the county, and the most popular answer was to ensure that the rural character of the county be vigorously protected.

“The county is deliberate about that,” Jordan said. “We don’t want big box businesses. Even if we did, there is not water and sewer infrastructure across the county to support that. The land is mostly rolling hills and farmland.”

In order to have farms, Jordan said the farmers have to make a living. Polk County was the first in the state to put an Agriculture Economic Development program in place, and she said this “woke up a sleeping giant of agriculture that is not going back to sleep.”

Jordan’s role entails that she works with agricultural businesses and helps them get the support they need to grow. The county is not actively recruiting new businesses to the area, but rather working with the large number and variety of small family-owned businesses that already exist in the county. The county’s largest vegetable producer is farming on 25 acres with no more than 10 employees.

“I do a lot of consulting,” Jordan said. “I help to connect the dots and inform farmers about regulations, zoning, licensing, product sourcing, and more. I am generally able to help get them on a good start, and this has been invaluable for many. I hear across the state there is a desire to have that focus — almost every county has agriculture but it’s not the direction that every county has been given.

“There is a huge variety of different types of agricultural businesses here in Polk County. Sunny Creek Farm has been in place for 25 years and supplies sprouts to buyers up and down the East Coast. People are growing microgreens, blueberries, mushrooms, grapes, asparagus, and even kiwi. Local farms raise beef, pork, and chicken. There are also several interesting projects in the works that will add a different flare.”

Growing methods at many farms are evolving as these businesses grow, continued on next page according to Jordan. Indoor growing methods like hydroponics are becoming more popular, allowing a more controlled environment and higher yields in smaller spaces.

“The next generation of farmers doesn’t necessarily have the capital to buy into large-scale operations in our area,” Jordan said. “They can do tremendous production with a smaller footprint indoors. While this takes a lot of education and management regarding nutrient input, the next generation seems to be interested in the technical side of things, and this will only grow in popularity.”

Agritourism is also a growing component of the industry. Jordan said visitors come for wineries growing their own grapes, farm tours at apple orchards, and treats from the local creamery. The county also co-hosts the annual NC Foothills Farm Tour with Rutherford County in October — a self-guided tour for the public highlighting a variety of local farms in the area.

“This tour is a collaborative approach with business owners,” Jordan said. “We make sure to offer diversity within the locations on the tour. This year, we will be featuring homestead tours. These are family farms that have a holistic approach, and they will help show people what it means to homestead and what types of products are being offered to the community.”

Farmers markets in Polk County have also worked as an incubator space for agricultural businesses, according to Jordan. There are two broad varieties of vendors — those that need a supplemental income and are a weekly mainstay, and those that are younger, newer start-ups wanting to move to a full-time business and use the market to build demand and get to know their customers.

“In my 10 years in this position, I have seen people grow out of these markets by building their following with farmers markets and good marketing,” Jordan said. “This means we’ve done our job of helping them get to the next level.”

Keeping Henderson County a Hub for Agricultural Businesses

Started in 2011 as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit public/private organization, AgHC is funded by Henderson County and private membership to preserve and grow the county’s agriculture industry.

“Agriculture is not only a major component of the local economy, it’s also part of our heritage,” Executive Director Mark Williams said. “Our goal is to provide as many opportunities for agriculture to be profitable and sustainable here in Henderson County.”

Williams said similar to an economic development group, the organization is largely involved in building relationships and connections between growers and buyers, utilizing marketing opportunities, and helping new and expanding companies with site location and getting established.

“We act as the point person for farming businesses to reach out to for help,” Williams said. “When businesses are interested in coming here, they are excited to find someone who can help save time and energy when they are searching for points of contact.”

According to Williams, there are 455 farms in Henderson County, and AgHC has worked with many of those. They also help with the recruitment of businesses such as Tri-Hishtil, Bold Rock Hard Cider, BrightFarms, Flat Rock Cider, Lakeside Produce, AgriFacture, and Ohalo. The organization also helped to establish the county as an American Viticulture Area as there were no wineries in the county when the organization began, and there are now 10 that he said are “doing quite well.”

“There is always some benefit to bringing farming businesses to the area, even if they don’t stay forever,” Williams said. “Driscoll leased property at one time to grow blackberries. They pulled out, but they helped get blackberries established here and we now have a market for that.”

Growing and recruiting farming businesses has created around 800 jobs in Henderson County since 2011, according to Williams. AgHC also makes a conscious effort to keep land for agriculture, preserving 1,029 acres as farmland.

Much of the county’s tourism is centered around agriculture as well. With the NC Apple Festival, the Garden Jubilee, wineries, cideries, and a variety of farms offering pick-your-own produce and seasonal events, Williams said agriculture attracts a lot of people to the county. Also considering agribusiness facilities such as packing, storing, greenhouses, and more, the estimate is that agriculture is on the cusp of being a $1 billion dollar industry for the county.

“We have a balanced economy in Henderson County,” Williams said, but with 20% to 25% of the county’s business in agriculture, it’s really a big piece.” Henderson County’s climate and geographical location make it a great production area, according to Williams. Producers look at what is possible to grow here, and apples and tomatoes are good indicators of both warm days and cool nights which fits many types of growers. The 2,200 feet of elevation and the number of clear winter days are appealing to greenhouse growers, and with the protection from frequent major weather events like tornadoes, hurricanes, or excessive snowfall, the county checks a lot of boxes for growers.

“There is also great water here,” Williams said. “It’s great for cider just like beer, and the same is true for greenhouse folks. I’ve heard when their water is lab-tested for quality, lab techs have said it’s the highest quality water they’ve ever seen.”

With so many farming businesses in the area, Williams said there is never enough labor. For the high-tech side of things, they have a great relationship with Blue Ridge Community College in developing and redesigning curriculum and customizing training for new facilities. He said it’s as much a focus on engineering and science as it is growing. The college’s training, mentor, or internship programs are helping locals become better trained and educated as well as enticing interest for people from outside the region to relocate to the area for some of these positions.

Williams said there is just as much skill required in base-level jobs like planting, harvesting, and caretaking, and as more people are exploring higher education, fewer people are interested in these types of labor positions. Many farms rely on the government’s H-2A program to bring in people from other countries for seasonal work.

“Growers are required to provide housing, transportation, and a base amount of pay, and people love coming here for seasonal work,” Williams said. “It’s very productive. We’re also lobbying for farm labor needs, educating politicians on the importance of importing labor instead of importing food.”

Another industry challenge according to Williams is the appreciation of land values.

With so much demand for residential and commercial development, he said while some high-end farming businesses can afford to purchase farmland, it is extremely difficult for young farmers to get started.

“We are working on local programs to leverage other funds to put a strong, balanced program in place for agricultural easements,” Williams said. “We are working to perpetually keep farmland here in Henderson County.”

Value-Added Products Are Key to a Local Farm’s Success

While many of WNC’s farmers are beginning to incorporate value-added products into their business plans, Looking Glass Creamery developed in the opposite order. Having always enjoyed working with animals, Looking Glass Creamery Owner Jennifer Perkins said she loved the creative aspect of cheese making. When she was living in Virginia, a cheese maker agreed to have her as an apprentice. She loved the experience and followed her apprenticeship with classes in Vermont and then at NC State University, and later worked on a farm in Tennessee. Wanting to be in Asheville for her son’s education, she and her family relocated to Fairview and built a barn, and Perkins worked making cheese by herself in 2009.

Within a year, Perkins said she had a contract with Williams Sonoma and realized she couldn’t do it all by herself. As their business grew, Perkins’ husband Andy began working with her full time. The contract with Williams Sonoma provided a great audience but wasn’t allowing her business to grow locally, so they pulled the plug on the contract and narrowed their focus.

Along with her husband and son Max, she purchased a farm in Columbus where they formerly purchased their milk in 2017, constructed a building for cheese making and storage in 2018, then built their farm store in 2019.

“We were put through the paces as far as things like shipping,” Perkins said. “Farmers markets were crowded, so we created our own market through our store. We expanded our offerings to include homemade hard cider, wine and cheese combinations, as well as our own homemade jams and pickled items to accompany these cheese boards. We’ve just been putting one foot in front of the other. You have to be flexible with what the Universe puts in front of you, and this is a reasonable place to grow.”

Perkins said as she struggled to find staff for the store, Max began helping and understanding the business and has grown to manage the family’s store.

“It’s great talking to people and letting them know where their food comes from,” Max Perkins said. “We are seeing the smiles on people’s faces as visitors see the cows and meet the people who are making their food. I began to notice there aren’t that many places in this area for the community to come together, and the farm store is becoming more of a community pillar in that way. We’re doing more festivals and live music, and we’d love to keep doing that.”

Max Perkins said instead of growing their dairy specifically, they’d love to grow by creating other added-value products. continued on next page

They give their cows time off, as they are currently getting plenty of milk — enough to sell to other local cheese makers — and the cow’s time off has an effect on the quality of milk produced.

Currently, Looking Glass Creamery has 56 cows, and they are milking 20 of them to get about 100 gallons of milk per day during milking season. Perkins said milk produced at certain times of the year is better for different cheeses, and they currently make at least nine varieties. Depending on the variety of cheese, the result is anywhere from three-quarters of a pound to a pound and a half of cheese per gallon of milk. On a mid-spring day this year, they used 345 gallons of milk to make 18 wheels of cheddar.

Products created at the farm include three jams, three pickles, and some unusual or specific items. Perkins said they chose to make pickled mustard seeds because they are specific to their cheese plates, and they chose to make pickled watermelon rinds and dilly beans because they are Southern and different, and also support the local farms from which they are sourced.

Being in a dry county, the only way the farm store could offer alcohol is if they made their own. Hard cider is technically a wine and a fermented product like cheese, so Perkins said they were not intimidated to start brewing. Looking Glass Creamery sources local apples from Creasman Farms in Hendersonville, and with a federal permit, the facility produces a limited amount of hard cider to serve alongside their cheese boards at their store.

The combination of their value-added products and onsite activities like ‘U-Pick’ sunflowers adds an agritourism aspect to the family’s business. Jennifer and Max Perkins said people come from all of the region’s counties, nearby cities like Charlotte or Atlanta, and even from Florida.

“Value-added farm products may be the difference between farmers making it and not,” Perkins said. “If you want to build a business beyond a ‘hobby gone wild,’ value-added products are needed for flexibility and stability. It’s critical to bring these in once a farm is on its feet, and it’s a great way to bring longevity to produce.”

There is tons of support in the region for good food made locally, and Perkins said even the regulatory environment in NC is very supportive. Asheville’s restaurant scene allows consistent, year-round buying of their products, and also creates connections between chefs, farms, and amazing food.

“We love that we are keeping our dollars local,” Perkins said. “It’s all connected, and keeping money circulating within our community has a big impact.”

Agritourism Can Add Income Streams and Teaching Opportunities to Farming Businesses

Moving to WNC from Charleston, SC, Robert Russel had been looking for farmland in the mountains for five years before his wife, Kathleen, found Mount Gilead Farm.

The couple purchased the 49 acres of the farm including several buildings in 2016 with no farming background. Russel said he worked in the academic sector for 35 years and was too young to retire. He was interested in the kinds of farming aimed at improving the land rather than “just hanging onto it.”

“Traditional farming is extractive,” Russel said. “You can’t just take everything out of the soil. Somehow soil has just become the medium in which to hold plants while you inject them with fertilizer. That’s not sustainable, and it gets really expensive. Dirt is not an inert medium, and I’ve always been fascinated about people doing farming to improve what they had.”

The soil at Mount Gilead Farm wasn’t in terrible shape, according to Russel. Over eons, topsoil from the mountains has run downhill into the valley. The Russels practice regenerative farming which involves abandoning primary agricultural equipment like the plow. The Extension Service offers a no-till seed drill, and they use this tool when growing their grass, which protects their soil and makes hay that feeds their goats.

Russel was making cheese as a hobby and decided to purchase goats for milking. While goat’s milk is a rich product worth $16 per gallon, Russel’s cheese is worth more than that. Starting at $20 per pound, different varieties of his homemade goat’s milk cheese are value-added products they can sell via direct marketing and increase the possibility of success for a full-time farming business.

The idea at the beginning of the Russels’ farming business was simply a goat dairy, and Russel said their mantra is also to have multiple income streams. Understanding the tourism draw of the area, they converted an old garage into two AirBnB units.

“This was extremely lucrative for the first couple of years,” Russel said. “We spent money upfront to renovate the building and get things going, but bookings have fallen off a bit since COVID, and we never fully bounced back from that. The general consensus is that the market here is saturated, and the Asheville area is the second highest in terms of added fees through AirBnB.”

There are still a good number of people visiting the farm, according to Russel. He gets a lot of repeat business, and a lot of those visitors are from Charlotte or other larger cities. People find something on the farm that clicks with them, and most people love getting out of the city and staying on the farm.

There are also specific farm-stay platforms that help bring visitors from other areas to the farm. Mount Gilead Farm is a member of WWOOF, or Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, a worldwide effort to link visitors to organic farmers for an educational experience. This allows visitors to stay and help on the farm in exchange for learning about agriculture from various hosts.

Russel said the state’s Department of Agriculture is pushing agritourism to farmers as a way to help farmers increase revenue for their businesses. Mount Gilead Farm also hosts Farm Tours during kidding season, and while there is growing competition in this aspect, it’s a popular portion of their business.

“From March through June, we offer a baby goat feeding experience,” Russel said. “There’s nothing cuter in the world than a baby goat, and as an ex-professor, I enjoy that I still get to educate people and get them excited about agriculture.”

Several years ago on a regional farm tour, a guide asked participants if anyone had ever heard of goat yoga. Russel said while most people laughed, one farm owner stood up and said that people pay her $25 per hour to come to her farm and play with her goats. This caught Russel’s interest, and he was later approached by a yoga instructor about offering goat yoga on his farm.

“We’ve now offered goat yoga a handful of times, and each session has more attendees than the last,” Russel said. “The thing is that goat yoga is seasonal. It can only happen until the kids are about 40 pounds — they will jump on you and be in your face, and after a certain size, it’s not as cute.”

Russel said he really enjoys the agritourism aspect of owning a farm. “We are not some sort of display farm; we are an actual working farm,” he said. “Many Americans are three generations removed from farming, and many of our visitors have never been on a farm or understand what farms do. I love that we get to expose them to some of the basics.”

Business Resources: Agriculture

Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project

Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project is a 501(c) (3) organization with a mission to support local farmers, link them to resources, and build healthier communities through connections to local food. ASAP offers a variety of educational and supportive programming for farmers, educators, and the community including a Farm to School program, farmer training programs, workshops, and a Farm Fresh for Health initiative.

Learn more at ASAPConnections.org.

NC Choices

NC Choices is a unique program of NC State’s Center for Environmental Farming Systems and the NC Cooperative Extension that works with independent pasture-raised meat producers and independent processors around the state.

NC Choices works with several partners including regulatory experts and economic development planners to help “grease the supply chain” between meat producers and their processors to make sure farms and their business supply chains are profitable. Learn more at CEFS.NCSU. edu/Food-System-Initiatives/ NC-Choices.

WNC Ag Options

WNC Ag Options is a program which delivers grants to a wide variety of agricultural businesses in 20 WNC counties. The goal of WNC Ag Options is to help diversify farms, create more efficiency, and keep farms in farmland where agriculture is part of the cultural heritage and a big part of life for many residents.

Learn more at WNCAgOptions.org

Find a comprehensive list of resources for businesses and organizations of all types at WNCBusiness.com/Resources.