Agenda 05-02-2019 - 8-a - Minutes

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7 1 • Continued installing new road signs to identify farms enrolled in the Voluntary 2 Agricultural District programs, as well as to recognize participating farmers and increase 3 program visibility 4 • Promoted the creation of an "Agriculture Investment Grant" program as one of the 5 projects to be funded by revenue generated by the new one quarter (%) cent "Article 46" 6 sales tax enacted in 2012 (5% of the annual revenue, or approximately $60,000) 7 8 Pete Sandbeck highlighted activities that the APB expects to carry out in 2019: 9 • Continue to promote and recommend Voluntary Agricultural Districts and 10 Enhanced Voluntary Agricultural Districts 11 • Support continuation of the successful Farm-to-Table Event for 4th-grade students held 12 annually at Blackwood Farm Park. 13 • Educate/inform new, established and prospective farmers about the recent elimination of 14 the present-use tax value requirement for VAD/EVAD participation. 15 • Purchase and install additional road signs to better identify farms in the Voluntary 16 Agricultural District Program (existing and new farms) 17 • Enroll additional farm owners in the Century Farm Program 18 • Continue the Orange County Agricultural Heritage Project to document and make a 19 record of the County's farms, farmers and farm life, including oral histories and 20 video/photo documentation 21 22 Peter Sandbeck reviewed some of the APB's concerns going forward: 23 Dairy farms, which have been an important part of Orange County's agricultural heritage, 24 are in crisis. The number of dairies in Orange County has dwindled to 3. Commodity milk 25 prices can no longer support our local dairies. One way forward is to work to help create 26 a local market for our Orange County dairy products, as a way to encourage more dairy 27 farms and keep the ones still active. Dairy farming once represented a significant 28 percentage of the County's farmland. Action is needed to retain enough infrastructure to 29 support the existing dairy farms now. 30 The average age of our farmers continues to increase, causing concerns about 31 retirement and farm succession planning. This is an ongoing issue despite the rising 32 numbers of young people farmers control and farm a large percentage of the County's 33 prime open farmland, thus creating the potential for a significant decline in active farm 34 acreage over the next decade. 35 • The majority of the new farm operations now being started in Orange County are small 36 market crop farms, where crops are grown intensively on smaller parcels, to be sold 37 locally at markets. 38 • The APB supports the concept of creating a "Present Use Value Trust Fund" to support 39 a grant program to promote local agricultural activities and increase local markets for 40 food produced in the County. This is proposed to be funded by deferred property tax 41 revenue collected by the County when farmland ceases to be used for agricultural 42 purposes. When land is taken out of the three years of deferred property taxes back to 43 the County. Cabarrus County established a very successful program on this model. 44 Explore ways to educate farmers and prospective farmers about the many new 45 agritourism opportunities that could be used to enhance and diversify farm income and 46 bring visitors to farms. 47 • The newly formed Food Council offers ways for the APB to become more involved in a 48 range of initiatives to enhance local markets for farm products. 49 50 Commissioner Price asked if the number of century farms is known.