Top Agriculture News

A question of major concern to many in North Carolina and beyond, following Hurricane Helene’s devastation in the mountains has been, “What about the Christmas trees?” Western North Carolina is a major producer of Fraser firs and other popular holiday varieties. Larry Smith’s trees have been selected national winners in the White House Christmas tree […]

Agriculture Undersecretary for Food Production and Conservation Robert Bonnie is among those who acknowledge a full scope of damages is weeks, even months away, yet there are preliminary indications how farms and forests in the impact zones fared. The undersecretary, at a recent federal post hurricane response briefing, said from a federal crop insurance perspective… […]

The USDA is out now with its new quarterly hogs and pigs report. “What this report is telling us is, you know, I don’t think there was any real big surprises.” Not even a couple of the small ones. This from USDA livestock analyst Michael McConnell. “What this report says, more or less, is that […]

Friday, September 6, 2024 Unfortunately, our office has been notified that scammers are pretending to be North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler on social media and peer-to-peer payment services like Venmo. Imposter scammers pretend to be someone in a position of authority to get your hard-earned money or personal information. Commissioner Troxler and other […]

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has signed the state’s first relief package to address Hurricane Helene’s devastation. The bill signed Thursday allocates $273 million for immediate needs and gives flexibility to agencies and displaced residents in western counties. The Republican-dominated legislature approved the measure unanimously the day before. Nearly all the money will be used to meet the federal government’s match for state and local disaster assistance programs. Other provisions help nutrition workers in closed schools. The money is coming from the state’s large savings reserve. The bill also changes how upcoming elections are conducted in 25 counties. More Helene relief legislation could advance in two weeks.

/This is the SFN Market Report with Brooks Schaffer of Palmetto Grain. Reach him at [email protected] or 843-540-4540. Today is USDA report day! The October WASDE Supply and Demand Report comes out today at noon eastern. The October update will incorporate the stocks data we got last week as the old crop carryout on the […]

News continues to come in post-Helene now, and to give us an update, we turn to Corey Davis from the State Climate Office of North Carolina. Let’s start with the bad news first. “Yeah, that’s right, Mike. In North and South Carolina, the death toll continues to rise after Helene. Now that’s not a surprise. […]

In the midst of the turmoil following Hurricane Helene, farmers and others continue to display resiliency and camaraderie. Sofia Lilly is a fruit grower and winemaker at Overmountain Vineyards in Polk County, North Carolina, and says her farm was simply overwhelmed by water. “At our farm, we received over 12 inches in the course of […]

Hurricane Helene was the deadliest storm in America since 2017, with over 225 lives lost and many others still missing. Danny Munch, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, says agriculture is an important part of the Southeast and has a long road to recovery. “When we overlay the counties that were impacted and […]

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina legislators have approved an initial $273 million relief package to help address Hurricane Helene’s devastation and recovery in the mountains. The unanimous House and Senate passage on Wednesday came less than two weeks after Helene’s historical rainfall caused catastrophic damage and loss of life. Repubilcan legislative leaders who helped craft the measure described it as a down payment on aid. The bill also mostly follows rule alterations for conducting elections and turning in ballots that were approved unanimously Monday by the State Board of Elections for 13 western counties. But it would now cover 25 counties. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the board offered input for the bill.