Cook: Rowan's rural roots an economic plus

Virtually every county has an economic development director who focuses on recruiting industry. How many have an agricultural economic development director?

Lynn Sprague, one of the presenters at a regional symposium last week on protecting North Carolina's farmland, fills that role in Polk County.

"Hop on the train or it's going to pass you by," Sprague told about 50 people gathered at the Statesville Civic Center to hear him and others share their initiatives. The LandTrust of Central North Carolina and the Foothills Conservancy organized the event, with funding from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

The focus was on the business side of using and saving farmland, and I came away a little surprised. I had come to think of farmers as a vanishing breed, and economic development as a matter of recruiting industrial plants. But some counties have had luck focusing on the backbone of rural communities — agriculture — and nurturing its expansion.

As Sprague said, the best way to preserve farmland is to keep farms productive and economically sound.

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You can't get much more rural than Polk County, nestled in the foothills of North Carolina, right on the South Carolina line. In 2008, its population was estimated at 19,074. That's 77 people per square mile, compared to Rowan's 255.1 people per square mile and Mecklenburg's 1,322.2.

Polk is Rural with a capital R, and the people of Polk County like it that way, Sprague said. So, while others carry on the usual stuff of economic development for Polk, Sprague works to stimulate the agricultural side of the local economy and preserve farmland.

His position, the only one like it in the state, is fully funded by the county. He works with a board appointed by county commissioners, the Farmland Preservation and Agricultural Economic Development Board.

He says he operates in partnership with the local Cooperative Extension Service staff. "The difference is, I'm working directly with farmers on how to make money," he says.

In a year and a half, Sprague has helped expand local farmers markets from two to four, involving more than 100 vendors; started holding Friends of Agriculture breakfasts, where farmers can hear a speaker and share information; held a Keep the Farm Workshop; and convinced the local community college to offer agriculture classes.

He helped organize the Columbus Farm Festival, at which all the vendors had to be from Polk County. And with his help the Polk County Soil and Water Conservation District is transforming an old school into a new Agricultural Development Center.

Sprague and others promote agriculture as an up-and-coming enterprise — a way to encourage sustainability — instead of a fading way of life. And Sprague literally drives the message home (and around town) behind the wheel of a big, white box truck decorated with smiling vegetables. Its horn makes different animal sounds.

When someone at the conference asked for contact information, Sprague started to give his own (828-894-2281).

No, no, the questioner said. "I want to know where to get one of those horns."

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Agriculture is a significant segment of our economy. Rowan has 983 farms, according to figures from the N.C. Department of Agriculture, and in 2008 they produced cash receipts of more than $62 million.

In addition to people you might think of as traditional farmers, the recession has turned some people into farmers-by-necessity. They're cultivating gardens to save money on groceries and to sell to others. High fuel costs and food contamination scares have made people think more about buying "local."

In the summer, why would you want to eat a tomato picked in California and shipped cross-country when some 350 acres of tomatoes are raised by commercial growers here?

When Darrell Blackwelder first came to Rowan to work with the Cooperative Extension Service, tomato growers were getting 15-20 bushels per acre. Now they average 30 to 35, he says. That's typical of local farms' increased productivity. "We're getting better and better," he says.

And more people are getting into farming, at least in the horticultural area that is Blackwelder's specialty. He mentions vineyards that would have been unheard of here a decade ago, and several people who are putting in an acre of blueberries, for example, to sell.

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Other innovative ideas were explained at the symposium.

- In Cabarrus County — with $400,000 from the county and $150,000 from the Cannon Foundation — they've created an agricultural incubator, one that helps train and hatch new farmers, not baby chicks. Cabarrus is also establishing a local meat processing center for the livestock industry.

- In Rutherford County, Foothills Connect brought in broadband service. Now local farmers connect with Charlotte restaurants 77 miles away by delivering fresh produce and meats that chefs order online.

- And in Iredell, Stamey Farms is branching out from exporting dairy cattle by buying Mooresville Ice Cream Co. — maker of the DeLuxe Ice Cream brand — and partnering with an expert yogurt producer in Ecuador to build a $7.5 million yogurt plant.

Rowan is not the nation's bread basket, but the agriculture industry is strong, growing and innovating. The more farmland we can keep in production, the better off our economy will be.

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Elizabeth Cook is editor of the Salisbury Post.