Grow Food Where People Live, SCORE present workshop on starting ag-based small business
Sept. 22

Few places in the United States face greater challenges to human and economic development than the rural counties of Western North Carolina. In Polk County, N.C., as in the other predominantly rural counties of the region, many interconnected challenges hinder people’s ability to make a decent living and provide healthy food for themselves and their families including:

Loss of farm livelihoods: In the second half of the 20th century, small-scale farming, the economic mainstay of rural America for centuries, went into steep decline. The number of farmers in WNC dropped from 76,065 in 1970 to 12,212 in 2002, and between 1987 and 2007, the region lost 12 percent of its total farmland (USDA, 2012). Just between 2007 and 2012, Polk County alone lost 19 farms, decreasing the total farms in the county from 309 to 290 (USDA, 2012). Also, less than 11 percent of Polk County farms sold directly to local consumers in 2012, and their total sales amounted to under $50,000 (ASAP, 2014).

Deskilling of rural people: As farms and farm livelihoods disappeared, people also lost many basic life skills they could use to feed themselves and generate extra income. Today, many families that have earned their livings from manufacturing and service jobs for multiple generations no longer know how to grow, preserve, or even cook their own food. Moreover, the farmers who have those skills are aging, and as they do, we lose our capacity to reskill people who want to return to farming livelihoods or just learn to be more self-reliant.

Generational poverty: More than a quarter of Polk County’s children and adolescents live in poverty (USDA, 2013), and more than 50% do not have enough to eat (NC Cooperative Extension, 2014). In many cases these children are the second or third generation to live in poverty, and, as a result, they are caught in a downward spiral of food insecurity, ill health, and learned helplessness – when no one in a family possesses and can transmit the intellectual, social, and cultural capital necessary to change their impoverished condition, children become trapped and the cycle is perpetuated.

Although much remains to be done, through Grow Food Where People Live, a strong coalition of Polk County stakeholders are taking action to meet the food needs of vulnerable residents and to create a local food economy that allows farmers to make a good living growing the food the rest of the community eats. Grow Food Where People Live is a bottom-up approach to community-based food production and economic development that empowers people and builds on local assets to improve the health, food security, and self-reliance of vulnerable families.

In early 2015, Groundswell International, a non-profit based out of Asheville, launched the initiative in Polk County.  Since its inception the program has been moving forward to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables while also providing training in valuable skills focused on growing, preserving, canning, and selling sustainably grown produce. In cooperation with the local SCORE Chapter, SCORE will be offering a workshop on starting your own small business at the Polk ICC campus on Sept. 22 from 6-8 p.m.

With the collaboration of Groundswell International, the Polk County Office of Agricultural Economic Development, Growing Rural Opportunities, Thermal Belt Outreach Ministries, The Polk Agricultural Extension, and countless local groups, churches, and individuals, the initiative has been able to launch two “micro-farms” within the county. These micro farms incorporate perennial and annual crops to supply large quantities of fresh produce to individuals and families with limited access to these nutrient dense foods, while also serving as learning and community building spaces.

Now that the basic knowledge is in place, the program will begin its second phase: economic development. In 2016, Grow Food Where People Live will begin a three-year effort to improve upon and scale its initial successes. Participants who have the basic skills will now have the opportunity to develop small businesses based around the local food system. On top of increases in income, GFWPL will also pilot a food buying club in 2017, which will increase local farmers’ income and save individuals and families money.

Grow Food Where People Live empowers people to become the lead actors in improving their own lives, and in doing so addresses the dependency and learned helplessness that perpetuate the cycle of poverty. As the initiative matures, the goal is to expand across Western North Carolina (WNC) and eventually into states across the Southeast.

For more information on the program, SCORE workshop, or to make a donation, please visit www.growfoodwherepeoplelive.org or email Sydney Klein at sklein@groundswellinternational.org.

– article submitted by Bill Kerns