Photo courtesy of the Farmland Values Project
For several years now, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler has been pushing for the preservation of farmland in North Carolina, saying that its value goes beyond dollars and cents.
A study released by UNC-Asheville suggests he’s right.
The Farmland Values Project collected, analyzed and communicated the many values that people have for farmland in four Western North Carolina counties. More than 1,100 residents in Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties participated in a survey, focus groups or mapping exercise between 2006 and 2008. In addition, 307 visitors to the region took part in the survey.
Here’s a sampling of the results:
The project was conducted by Leah Greden-Mathews, a UNCA economist; sociologist Daniel O’Leary of Old Dominion University; and Art Rex of Appalachian State University’s Department of Geography and Planning. Bill Yarborough, an agronomist with our department, was a collaborating partner on the project.
The Web site for the project includes lots of interesting facts and figures. But the really interesting part is a section called “The Story.” It contains interviews with residents about farms in the region. “The Story” is a great oral history piece divided into categories describing farmland, its benefits, what’s happening to farmland and what we can do about it.