Imagine gearing up to start production in a business you've poured your life savings into. COVID-19 hits, shutting down life as usual and bringing your plans to a halt, with no end in sight. That's food entrepreneur Will Kornegay's story. But thanks to some quick thinking and the support of others, it has a happy ending.

About Our Guest

Will Kornegay was born, raised and lives in Rocky Mount, where farming of produce and other commodities is key to the economy. He says he always wanted to work in agriculture, but he took a detour after graduation from NC State University with a degree in business. He worked as an energy trader for two years before taking a job with Ham Produce Co. in Snow Hill, when he got firsthand exposure to running sales and operations for a large food company with a farm, a produce packing operation, a commercial puree line and a dehydration plant. With his sister, Laura Hearn, he started Ripe Revival in 2019 and then Ripe Revival Market in 2020.

Resources

Learn more about Kornegay’s companies at riperevival.com and riperevivalmarket.com. To find out more about how Ripe Revival turned NC State University discoveries into protein-rich snacks made from excess fruits and vegetables grown by U.S. farmers visit our story “Coming Up: Healthier Foods, Less Food Loss.”

In the United States, there are more than 59,000 job openings for college graduates in agriculture each year. And the need for them is climbing. What is North Carolina State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences doing to fill that need? Associate Dean John Dole talks about agricultural careers and shares more about how CALS prepares them for the future.

About Our Guest

John Dole is associate dean and director of academic programs for North Carolina State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He’s also been a scientist and educator with expertise in the production of cut flowers and poinsettias. He comes from an area of west Michigan with a large agricultural industry, and as a child he earned spending money by working at a farm stand next door to his house. 

Dole went on to study at Michigan State and the University of Minnesota, then began his academic career at Oklahoma State University. He joined NC State’s faculty in 2000, becoming head of the Department of Horticultural Science in 2011 and starting his current position in 2016.

Resources

• Find descriptions of nearly 250 agricultural careers at FFA’S AgExplorer website, where you can also take a quiz to see which ones might be right for you.
•  Learn more about two-year, four-year and graduate academic programs, student life and pathways to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, visit the CALS website. There’s also information on the site about how to apply.
• Nominate a prospective student.

There's a rising interest in the role that military veterans play in American agriculture. Four of them discuss their experiences in farming and homesteading. This episode also highlights an NC State program to help those who’ve served our country pursue agricultural careers.

About Our Guests

Robert Elliott is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who grew up in Louisburg, North Carolina, on a large farm that produced soybeans, tobacco and other crops. After a career as a helicopter mechanic for the military, he went back to the family farm. He produced hogs, chickens and turkeys, mushrooms, hemp and other specialty crops on 40 acres. He holds two bachelor’s degrees from NC State’s biological and agricultural engineering department. He also helped create the Soldier to Agriculture program offered by North Carolina State University’s Agricultural Institute (AGI).

Samantha Manning grew up on a family farm in Smithfield, where most of the land was leased to other farmers. She served in the U.S. Army, then had several jobs in the private sector. She went on to be valedictorian of her class with the Agricultural Institute, then turned back to farming. Last year, she joined the AGI’s Soldier to Agriculture program as a military liaison. She is also owner and operator of Watson-Sanders Farm in Smithfield, producing small fruits and vegetables using sustainable, organic and regenerative practices. Her farm products are sold through a CSA share program and at a local produce stand. She holds a bachelor’s in agricultural education at North Carolina A&T State University.

David Rich was raised in Warwick, New York, in the Hudson River Valley. To earn extra money, he picked fruits and vegetables alongside migrant farmworkers. Rich always wanted to be in the military, and he joined the U.S. Air Force, serving for nearly 21 years. Much of that time, he served as an anti-terrorism advisor, traveling across Europe and to Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, New Zealand and Africa – as he puts it, “pretty much everywhere I’ve wanted to see.” He participated in AGI’s Soldier to Agriculture program and now has a homestead outside of Sanford, near the Cape Fear River. 

Tenita Solanto served 4½ years as an electronic technician working on radars and satellites in the U.S. Navy. After leaving the service in 2004, she enrolled in East Carolina University, earning a bachelor’s degree. She worked at Raytheon and IBM, then started her own business doing web design and social media marketing. She started Green Panda Farm in 2016. Now producing microgreens at the farm in Siler City, she plans to expand into hydroponics. Find out more about her and Green Panda Farms on Instagram and Facebook and at greenpandafarms.com. 

On the eve of his retirement, NC State University economist Mike Walden shares his observations on food and farming in North Carolina over the past four decades and trends that might influence these sectors in the future.

About Our Guest

Mike Walden is a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor and Extension specialist with NC State University’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. He teaches and writes on personal finance, economic outlook and public policy. Known for his accessible explanations of complex economic concepts, Walden has given some 2,500 presentations, produced thousands of episodes of a daily radio show and written 11 books – including four suspense novels as well as nonfiction works on North Carolina’s economy.

North Carolina is losing farm lands at a fast pace. What does this mean for the future of agriculture in our state, and what’s being done about it?

About Our Guests

Andrew Branan is an Extension assistant professor in North Carolina State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics, focusing on extension education on legal matters related to land, farming, forestry, and natural resources. A native of Texas, he holds degrees from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and the Wake Forest University School of Law. Before joining NC State, he worked as an agricultural lawyer for almost 20 years. He says he wore out his truck’s first engine while working in private practice with clients from Currituck to Cherokee counties.

William Hamilton was raised on a family farm in Buncombe County, where he grew up with a love for the land and an interest in the health of the environment. He holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Warren Wilson College and a master’s in forestry from NC State University. He worked for the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy for 12 years before joining NC State Extension as co-director of NC FarmLink for the western region.

As the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ farmland preservation director, Dewitt Hardee oversees the state’s Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund. He’s worked with the department since 1985. He holds bachelor’s degrees in animal science and agricultural education and a master’s degree in education from NC State University. He is a lifelong Johnston County resident. 

Along with her siblings, Mary Ogburn, a Winston-Salem resident, inherited a 66-acre property in fast-growing Lewisville from her father. Wanting to keep the land in agriculture, she turned to NC FarmLink and found a farmer to lease the land.

Noah Ranells is NC State Extension’s co-director of NC FarmLink for the eastern region. He holds a bachelor’s degree in animal science from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a master’s in crop science and doctorate in soil science from NC State University. He served in the Peace Corps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An owner of Fickle Creek Farm in Efland, he’s held environmental and agricultural positions in city, county and state government, and he’s been a faculty member at NC State and North Carolina A&T State universities.

Resources

NC State Extension’s Agricultural and Natural Resource Law Portal is loaded with resources related to farm succession and transfer, land use law, agribusiness law and more. 

Extension’s NC FarmLink program connects farmers, landowners, and service providers across North Carolina, helping to grow the state’s agriculture industry. It maintains databases of available farmland and farmers looking for land, and it provides educational resources for farmers and landowners.

The website of the North Carolina Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, part of the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, has information about farmland conservation, grants, and farmland preservation services available through other nonprofit and governmental agencies.

What will the next wave of agricultural technology hold? Two NC State faculty members with their fingers on the pulse of technological innovation for agriculture talk about their research today and what they think it’ll mean for the farms of the future.

About Our Guests

Jason Ward leads NC State’s Advanced Ag Lab in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. A native of Kentucky, Ward had no agricultural background before he attended the University of Kentucky as an undergraduate and graduate student in the early 2000s. There, he quickly became captivated by advanced technologies and how they could enhance agriculture. After earning a Ph.D. from Mississippi State University, he joined NC State in 2017 and is an assistant professor and extension specialist.

Sierra Young is an assistant professor in NC State’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. She holds three degrees in civil engineering: a bachelor’s from Cornell University and a master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also studied environmental engineering and worked on a project using unmanned aerial and surface vehicles for water management in South India. That sparked her interest in robotics, and today she runs NC State’s DAISy Lab, short for Digital Agroecology and Intelligent Systems. She joined the university in 2019.

Over the past century, mechanization has helped farmers produce more food more efficiently, but what about today? Can things like robots, drones, sensors and big data analytics help them feed a fast-growing world population? Four Oaks grower Brandon Batten weighs in.

Last fall, Trey Braswell was named a trailblazer by one of North Carolina’s leading business publications. The 35-year-old is forging new paths for Braswell Family Farms and making his mark as president of the North Carolina Egg Association. Braswell discusses how he’s building on long-held family values to lead the fourth-generation agribusiness into the future.

About Our Guest

Trey Braswell is a native of Nash County, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife and three children and serves as president of Braswell Family Farms. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business from NC State University and an executive Master of Business Administration from the College of William & Mary. He serves as president of the North Carolina Egg Association and a member of the national United Egg Producers’ board of directors.

Resources

• Visit Braswell Family Farms’ website to learn more about 78-year history and its present operations.
• Read more about Trey Braswell in Business North Carolina’s article “2020 Trailblazers in North Carolina.”
• For more information about North Carolina eggs, check out the N.C. Egg Association‘s web site.

With modern hemp production heading into its fifth growing season in North Carolina, what does the future hold for this crop? That’s a question that’s likely on the minds of over 1,500 licensed growers and others in the hemp industry. This episode of Farms, Food and You focuses on the challenges and opportunities facing hemp producers in our state.

Please note: This episode was recorded in December 2020. Since then, legal changes may have occurred. For updates on hemp law, please see the Extension hemp website.

Resources
 
To support North Carolina’s hemp industry, NC State Extension has a team of specialists working on everything from budgeting to production methods to disease and pest management. The team can be reached at [email protected], and it has an extensive website full of information at http://industrialhemp.ces.ncsu.edu. 

About Our Guests

Matt Spitzer is co-owner of Triangle Hemp. A North Carolina native, he earned a professional golf management degree and a minor in business at NC State, worked in the golf industry in South Carolina and returned to North Carolina to join Chase Werner, his longtime best friend, in a hydroponic lettuce farm called Endless Sun. They were among the first growers to sign up for licenses through the state’s industrial hemp pilot program. Their farm produces seeds and transplants for growers across the country.

 Marne Coit is a faculty member in NC State’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, where she teaches, researches and conducts extension programs related to food, agricultural and hemp law. She earned a master’s degree in environmental law and a juris doctorate from the Vermont Law School and holds an LLM degree in food and agricultural law from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville. She is the co-author of the book “Food Systems Law: An Introduction for Non-Lawyers,” published in July 2020.

David Suchoff has lived in North Carolina since he was 10. He came to agriculture through service when he did work in sustainable agriculture while serving in the Peace Corps in Paraguay and Costa Rica. When he returned, he was an apprentice at the Cherry Research Farm in Goldsboro and decided to pursue a master’s and then a Ph.D. in horticultural sciences at NC State. He is an assistant professor and alternative crops extension specialist in the university’s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. 

When it comes to NC State University’s impact on agriculture, the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service’s discoveries lead the way. Director Steve Lommel provides an update on the service and the groundbreaking research that’s changing farming and food for the better.