For third-generation farmer Stanley Hughes keeping his farm in Orange County viable can be a challenge.
For nearly 100 years the Hughes family has kept the 125 acres his grandfather bought in 1912 as a working farm. For the past 37 years Stanley Hughes has been working his family's land at Pine Knot Farms in Hurdle Mills, NC.
Farmer Hughes explains, "I really came back to farming in 1974, all the times before I was involved with the farm, but started back farming myself in 1974."
In the early days this farmer grew mostly tobacco, but Hughes says tougher times have called for new strategies in his farm to market approach. "We are growing organic sweet potatoes, organic tobacco, collards, kale. We also supply area restaurants and farmer's markets with organic."
Hughes says they never had a lot of money on the farm for expensive pesticides so the switch to whole organic farming was easy. "I tell a lot of people we've been organic all our lives because we've never had a lot of money to get expensive chemicals and stuff so it was no big deal for us."
Studies show it is the expense of farming that is one factor, which can weigh heavily on a farmer's shoulders.
New research from the North Carolina Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in partnership with the non-profit Land Loss Prevention Project shows African-American farmers in North Carolina are struggling with issues of discrimination, stress, and losing farmland at rapid rates.
Molly DeMarco, Research Fellow at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention explains, "North Carolina has the highest rate of land loss among African-Americans in the nation. The south is very high, but we are the highest of all the states. So we are interested in looking at why this is happening, what are the issues going on, particularly around estate planning and making wills and making a plan for who will inherit the land, because that is one of the biggest reasons black farmers are losing their land."
In the report many of the farmers say they've experienced discrimination when it comes to applying for a loan to gain capital for their farms.
Ruth Baldwin, Staff Attorney with the Land Loss Prevention Project explains this can lead to a legacy of land loss and debt. "We've talked to many black farmers who feel that it has been because of discrimination that they haven't gotten loans that pay for up to date equipment and just paying back loans they have on purchasing their land."
Stanley Hughes says his own experience with a cycle of loans and paybacks can cripple a farm. "They would get their money, try to put their money in for the fall and you have to make sure you have paid back your money. They also say it's going to be two months to get the money. That will put a lot of farmers out of business because you can't do things on time. Timing is everything in farming."
The research also shows, now is the time for farmers to talk about where they want their land to go, after they die, so land is not lost.
The Land Loss Prevention Project offers services and helps farmers understand the critical need for estate planning on the farm.
"A lot of times people may think I've told my son how I want the land to be divided on my passing, but they don't want to sit down with an attorney. They didn't understand if they don't have something in writing or have a will, oral wishes will not be fulfilled and the land will be divided," says Baldwin.
A few years ago during financial strains Stanley Hughes lost 50 acres that once belonged to his mother. He is still feeling that loss. Hughes explains, "there's no way your going to get it back because land prices are high, and when your credit gets gone, who will finance you?"
But Stanley Hughes remains hopeful circumstances will turn around for the small farmer, so the next generation will be interested in staying on the farm.
Hughes says, "some how they have to free up money so they can keep the kid's interest to make it on the farm. They can go and get a job now and make three times the money and a lot of them are not happy. If they could be on the farm and have their freedom, it would mean a lot to be with their family."
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