I created these audio slideshows for the Rural Advancement Foundation to highlight their 2011 grantees of the Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund. If you'd like to watch more, you can find them here.
A young farmer takes over her family's legacy after the death of her grandfather. Ashley Bridges tells us why she still gets emotional talking about him and his cows, and why it's worth it for her to keep on. Ashley is a 2011 TCRF grantee. Photography, audio and editing by Alix Blair for RAFI-USA, 2011.
The Sustainable Agriculture Tool Lending Library came to be through George O'Neal of Lil' Farm and his girlfriend Kelly Owensby: realizing how difficult it was for George, as a young farmer, to rent or buy equipment for his farm in Timberlake, they came up with the plan to become a cooperative with ten other farmers to buy farm tools together and share. The Lending Library uses a Google calendar to manage who gets what tool when. The Library also collects yearly membership fees that go towards future tool buying, insurance, and maintenance of the tools, and different farmers are assigned to different positions (ie. secretary, treasurer...) to help the cooperative run smoothly and be self-sustaining. Learn how tremendously beneficial this project is, how easy it is to replicate, and how it makes for a stronger, more vibrant, more successful, and more educated farm community. The Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund (TCRF) assists farmers in developing new sources of agricultural income through provision of cost-share grants. This story is part of a series documenting innovative farmers throughout the state of North Carolina. This program is made possible with support from the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission. Photography, audio, and production by Alix Blair.
Meet Kay Doby, a fourth generation farmer raised on tobacco land. Once a contract poultry grower, she now raises meat goats in her empty chicken houses. Kay noticed a growing market for goat meat in North Carolina and joined the North Carolina Meat Goat Cooperative. The cooperative picks up her goats, processes them and markets them for her. Learn about the success of raising meat goats--especially if you have a big empty space-- and Kay's innovation in converting her chicken houses for this new project. The Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund (TCRF) assists farmers in developing new sources of agricultural income through provision of cost-share grants. This story is part of a series documenting innovative farmers throughout the state of North Carolina. This program is made possible with support from the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission. Photography, audio, and production by Alix Blair.