News and Updates
World Events and Local Impacts
It goes without saying that recent events have gripped a torn and war-weary world. For the first time in our history, The US House of Representatives removed its Speaker, bringing the entire Congress to a screeching halt. North Carolina’s Rep. Patrick McHenry was named Speaker Pro Tempore to reorganize the majority and elect a new…
Read MoreMore Inconvenient Truths: Bias and Pay-to-Play Journalism
Recently, Raleigh’s News & Observer ran a rather lengthy Op-Ed authored by Samantha Gasson, who owns a small family livestock farm in Northwest Durham County. It is well written, and like any good farmer, she is promoting sales as the newspaper hot-linked to her farm’s webpage, which allows the online visitor to order expensive pasture-raised…
Read MoreMore Inconvenient Truth: The need for sound energy policy for North Carolina
The sustainability and profitability of farming and agribusiness depend on a consistent, affordable, and robust energy supply. Higher energy costs significantly affect rural businesses and citizens more than their urban/suburban peers. For example, I am told that a cotton picker, depending on age, can burn 12 to 24 gallons of diesel fuel PER HOUR. They…
Read MorePoultry communities support less regulations on poultry farms despite donor funded activism from big city newspapers
Over the past several weeks, we’ve focused intensely on the importance of poultry farmers to North Carolina’s rural counties. We highlighted the difference about how poultry communities really feel about farmers, compared to McClatchy’s donor-funded “advocacy dressed up as news reporting.” McClatchy’s series of hit pieces tried to substitute the paper’s big city interests for…
Read MoreFarm Communities Know the Value of Poultry Farmers
North Carolina’s tech industry gets a lot of visibility, and understandably so. According to NC TECH’s 2023 report, the industry “supports $72 billion in wages across the NC economy” and employs 291,000 people. But the agriculture sector far surpasses tech in North Carolina. Just last month, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler announced the industry reached $103.2 billion in economic impact this year…
Read MoreNorth Carolina’s agriculture community may be in for a labor shock in the coming years
Service Employees International Union (SEIU), renowned for its aggressive, no-holds-barred tactics, launched a well-funded organizing push this past year as part of a new affiliate called the “Union of Southern Service Workers.” Its target? North Carolina, including North Carolina farm workers. The organization can only go so far under existing laws and rules, but anything is…
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