Over recent weeks, I have read several posts from those who are recognizing the value of agricultural farmland. These values range from positive environmental impacts, provisions of food and fiber, life lessons learned, and ancestral history. This has me thinking about the far reach of agriculture in our state.
North Carolina’s number one industry is Agriculture, contributing an economic impact of $103.2 billion and 736,679 of the state’s 4.6 million employees. I find myself very blessed to be immersed in various aspects of the agriculture industry in both my professional and personal life. On the professional side, I also find myself engaged in the state’s number two industry, the military. This industry has an economic impact of $66 billion and supports 653,000 jobs in North Carolina, with 495,000 of these occurring in the private sector.
During the month of December, I had the opportunity to visit a rural community in our state, where not only is the land important to our agricultural industry, but also our military industry. During this visit, I was able to observe three different training missions that demonstrated the use of new technologies, and most importantly, teamwork to accomplish a common goal.
While the two industries may seem very different, they each provide a sense of security to our nation through their missions; one ensures food security and the other is protecting our freedoms and environment; which are the foundations of our state and country. The other parallel of these two industries is their reliance on open lands, often referred to as ‘Natural Working Lands’. While agriculture relies on open land for production of food and fiber, the military relies on open land for preparatory training in the event of disasters that could threaten our country’s way of life.
Recognizing this symbiotic relationship between these two industries has allowed us to combine efforts of North Carolina’s top two industries to work toward common goals of preserving our environment and way of life, specifically through NCDA&CS Agricultural Farmland Preservation. This relationship provides opportunities to collaborate to obtain funding for conservation easements and environmental practice grants.
It is often when we recognize similarities of purpose, that we can find common ground and implement teamwork for the greater good. Moving into 2024, I encourage all of us to do the same.
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