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3. Long Term (3 to 8 years) a. Construction of facilities Annette Dunlap said that she came into her position at N. C. State beginning August 1 ~ in the area of value added and alternative agriculture, because N. C. State realizes that the face of agriculture is changing in North Carolina and the old way of doing business will not be the future way of doing business. The average age of a North Carolina farmer is 56, which shows that the next generation is choosing not to stay on the land because it is not profitable. She said that the incubator program came into play because the goal is to help people get into farming that have not been in it before. She said that North Carolina is one of the top agricultural states in the nation. The Breeze facility allows North Carolina to be at the cutting edge of the new future of farming in the country. Fletcher Barber said that there are over 20 research farms throughout the state, but this would be a new concept for N.C. State because of the farm enterprise incubator and because there is no other county government that has stepped to the table that wanted to be a part of this. Commissioner Jacobs said that part of why this is before the County Commissioners is to make sure that they are all fully cognizant of what is going on and that the Board supports what is going on. There will be same policy decisions that will crop up sooner or later regarding finances, seeking grants, who is eligible to participate, etc. He wants to make sure that the County Commissioners are all in accord that this is the right direction to go. He said that the issue about the non-profits being able to have access to the loan pool came up in one of the discussions about how to do the incubator. The County will not be undertaking any additional financial burdens this coming fiscal year. He wants to commend this to the Board and ask that the Board make a specific request to N. C. State to encourage them to do the incubator. Annette Dunlap said that she would have to check on that. She thought that there was supposed to be a Memorandum of Agreement between the County and the University. Commissioner Gordon made reference to page three and asked if there is any space for individuals to have their own gardens in this area or if there is some area for community farms. Noah Rannells said that the Bountiful Harvest program that Cooperative Extension is leading may be used at the Blackwood Farm. The discussions among staff have been related to where most of the people are and where the demand for the gardens might be. The incubator program will have standards to be met. If there is an individual gardener that wants to take part in the incubator program, they would have to apply and be considered among the rest of the applicant pool. At this time, there is no consideration for individual gardening efforts under this facility. Commissioner Gordon asked for the staff to get to a point where a report on Bountiful Harvest can be given to the County Commissioners. Fletcher Barber said that this might be able to be done within the next three months. Chair Carey said that he supports this in concept. He said that it never occurred to him that non-profits would be excluded from the loan pool. Dianne Reid said that this was in the original by-laws, and those will be revised. Chair Carey said that he was CEO of Piedmont Health Services, which is anon-profit, for almost 20 years, and he had a hard time convincing banks to loan them money. He suggested educating the banking community about non-profits and what they contribute to the community. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page three, "Basic Components Provided by the Incubator Program," and said that there is no mention of marketing.