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1 James Bryan: So the attorney’s make some really interesting arguments. One thing that this Board should 2 keep in mind is it’s quasi-judicial. You’re not actually judged with law degrees and stuff like that so what the 3 statutes allow you to do is accept a lot more evidence into the record and then at your deliberations you do 4 findings of fact and you say what you relied upon and what you did not rely upon. So you might recall 5 different hearings when you had a lot of people testify stuff that was irrelevant and you let them speak and 6 then at deliberations you did not use that in your decision. Because of the time and because of what this 7 Board has already done there’s probably a lot of testimony that you’ve already heard that might not be 8 relevant to this. We went into very great detail for everybody so I would say out of the sake of fairness to let 9 them introduce their evidence and if you find that afterwards it was irrelevant then do not base our decision 10 on that. 11 12 Barry Katz: But we don’t have to decide whether he’s an expert for these purposes? 13 14 James Bryan: Right now you don’t have to. If you use his testimony you will have to have a finding that he 15 is an expert witness and that’s just a specialized knowledge more than the average person would have as 16 evidence through education, experience, and things like that. 17 18 Karen Barrows: Should we hear what he has to say? 19 20 Barry Katz: Yeah, sure. Let’s hear what he has to say. 21 22 Karen Barrows: Ok. 23 24 Andy Petesch: So could you just tell the Board quickly what you reviewed in preparation for today? 25 26 Erin White: Sure. I’ve looked at the General Statutes that have been discussed. The Orange County UDO, 27 the sections that have been listed in the brief. The Orange County Comp plan, especially section 6; the 28 agriculture section. And also, information about the barn; photographs, GI’s, mappings, site plans, and the 29 farm summary and agricultural census data. 30 31 Andy Petesch: And what about a document by the American Farm Land Trust? 32 33 Erin White: Yes. The American Farm Land Trust, which is a resource and advocacy group at a national 34 level, has put together a document called “Planning for our Agricultural Future”. It’s a guide for North 35 Carolina farmers and local government and they have some inaudible input on agritourism. 36 37 Andy Petesch: Would you please tell the Board what the challenges are for agriculture in this state, region, 38 and county? 39 40 Erin White: Sure. The main agricultural challenges for North Carolina, Triangle Region, and Orange County 41 also, are the ages of our farm population. The average age of farmers across all of North Carolina is in the 42 upper 50’s. Here in Orange County it’s about 58.9 years old. And so that presents challenges in finding the 43 next generation that will actually become our farmers. Another threat to agriculture are the patterns of land 44 development that include residential pressures to develop land. As land prices go up it’s much, much 45 harder for new farmers to get into agriculture. And as land prices go up existing farmers have an incentive 46 to sell out and new farmers have a disincentive to buy in because land is too expensive. We’re also 47 experiencing a cultural shift away from farming. We’re getting further and further away from our food as a 48 68