Extension aims to help area farmers take advantage of Army base growth
Extension agents Melissa Hall-Ix (center) and Taylor Wilson (right) consult with Betty Bradley at Bruton Vineyard.
Photo by Marc Hall
In the Sandhills of North Carolina, North Carolina Cooperative Extension is positioning itself to help local farmers take advantage of the considerable economic uplift expected as a result of something called BRAC.
In the initialized world of the American military, BRAC stands for Base Realignment and Closure. It’s a process the federal government developed to close underutilized military bases and realign military forces. Every few years, a BRAC commission looks at the big military picture and decides whether bases should be closed or forces realigned.
The last time the commission did this was 2005. Where those 2005 commission decisions are concerned, the key word for the Sandhills is not base closure but realignment. The commission decided that military forces would be realigned so that Fort Bragg, which sits squarely in the middle of the Sand-hills, would grow considerably.
Indeed, the Fort Bragg area is expecting an influx of just over 40,000 new residents by 2013 as soldiers and support personnel are reassigned to Fort Bragg, says Don Belk, regional planner with the BRAC Regional Task Force, a partnership of local governments in the 11-county area around Fort Bragg.
The task force was created to plan and prepare “for the significant impact on our communities due to the changes that will occur from the BRAC 2005 actions,” according to the organization’s Web site.
Belk and Craven Hudson, Moore County Extension director, secured a Tobacco Trust Fund grant to help area farmers take advantage of the economic impact the BRAC-induced population increase is likely to have.
“We hope that this growth at Fort Bragg will be a catalyst for transforming the region’s economy,” says Belk. “In order for the region to prosper from BRAC growth, we need to bring along our agricultural economy as well.”
Hudson credits Belk with suggesting that the growth of Fort Bragg might present agricultural opportunities.
“He (Belk) said, ‘What would it take to pull this off?’” Hudson recalls. “I said all our agents have full plates. We need an agent to act at point person.”
So Belk and Hudson submitted a grant proposal to the Tobacco Trust Fund seeking funding to hire an Extension agent to help Sandhills farmers take advantage of BRAC-induced growth in the region. They got the grant — $203,100 over three years — and in March 2008, Melissa Hall-Ix became the area sustainable agriculture agent.
Hall-Ix is stationed in Moore County but is also responsible for Lee, Harnett, Cumberland, Sampson, Bladen, Robeson, Scotland, Polk, Richmond and Montgomery counties in addition to Moore.
She sees potential for area farmers as well as challenges.
For example, it would seem that Fort Bragg might be a good market for fruits and vegetables produced by area growers, but growers can’t just show up at the base with a load of tomatoes and expect to sell them.
Two civilian contractors now supply all the base’s fruit and vegetable needs, Hall-Ix points out. The two companies, Military Produce Group and Foster-Caviness Foodservice, have what are known as prime vendor contracts with the Army. One company supplies base commissaries; the other, base dining halls.
Hall-Ix says both companies now get most of their fruits and vegetables from outside North Carolina. It may be possible for area farmers to sell to these prime vendors, but to do so, they must meet certain standards. They must become certified as using Good Agricultural Practices designed to ensure food safety, and they must meet quality and packaging standards.
While Extension can help growers meet these standards, Hall-Ix says she cannot always recommend that growers try to sell to prime vendors because profit margins often are not high enough and, thus, unsustainable.
Hall-Ix says much of her time during her first months on the job has been spent attending meetings, looking for alternative markets for the agricultural products produced throughout the 11-county region or variations of agricultural products that will meet the needs of new residents.
She hopes to develop ideas that will serve the increasing population in the Fort Bragg area, while she also sees the needs and demands of new residents creating new markets for agricultural products, markets that area farmers can take advantage of.
Over the next three years, Hall-Ix hopes to bring Fort Bragg, Sandhills residents and farmers together, to their mutual benefit.
— Dave Caldwell
In the initialized world of the American military, BRAC stands for Base Realignment and Closure. It’s a process the federal government developed to close underutilized military bases and realign military forces. Every few years, a BRAC commission looks at the big military picture and decides whether bases should be closed or forces realigned.
The last time the commission did this was 2005. Where those 2005 commission decisions are concerned, the key word for the Sandhills is not base closure but realignment. The commission decided that military forces would be realigned so that Fort Bragg, which sits squarely in the middle of the Sand-hills, would grow considerably.
Indeed, the Fort Bragg area is expecting an influx of just over 40,000 new residents by 2013 as soldiers and support personnel are reassigned to Fort Bragg, says Don Belk, regional planner with the BRAC Regional Task Force, a partnership of local governments in the 11-county area around Fort Bragg.
The task force was created to plan and prepare “for the significant impact on our communities due to the changes that will occur from the BRAC 2005 actions,” according to the organization’s Web site.
Belk and Craven Hudson, Moore County Extension director, secured a Tobacco Trust Fund grant to help area farmers take advantage of the economic impact the BRAC-induced population increase is likely to have.
“We hope that this growth at Fort Bragg will be a catalyst for transforming the region’s economy,” says Belk. “In order for the region to prosper from BRAC growth, we need to bring along our agricultural economy as well.”
Hudson credits Belk with suggesting that the growth of Fort Bragg might present agricultural opportunities.
“He (Belk) said, ‘What would it take to pull this off?’” Hudson recalls. “I said all our agents have full plates. We need an agent to act at point person.”
So Belk and Hudson submitted a grant proposal to the Tobacco Trust Fund seeking funding to hire an Extension agent to help Sandhills farmers take advantage of BRAC-induced growth in the region. They got the grant — $203,100 over three years — and in March 2008, Melissa Hall-Ix became the area sustainable agriculture agent.
Hall-Ix is stationed in Moore County but is also responsible for Lee, Harnett, Cumberland, Sampson, Bladen, Robeson, Scotland, Polk, Richmond and Montgomery counties in addition to Moore.
She sees potential for area farmers as well as challenges.
For example, it would seem that Fort Bragg might be a good market for fruits and vegetables produced by area growers, but growers can’t just show up at the base with a load of tomatoes and expect to sell them.
Two civilian contractors now supply all the base’s fruit and vegetable needs, Hall-Ix points out. The two companies, Military Produce Group and Foster-Caviness Foodservice, have what are known as prime vendor contracts with the Army. One company supplies base commissaries; the other, base dining halls.
Hall-Ix says both companies now get most of their fruits and vegetables from outside North Carolina. It may be possible for area farmers to sell to these prime vendors, but to do so, they must meet certain standards. They must become certified as using Good Agricultural Practices designed to ensure food safety, and they must meet quality and packaging standards.
While Extension can help growers meet these standards, Hall-Ix says she cannot always recommend that growers try to sell to prime vendors because profit margins often are not high enough and, thus, unsustainable.
Hall-Ix says much of her time during her first months on the job has been spent attending meetings, looking for alternative markets for the agricultural products produced throughout the 11-county region or variations of agricultural products that will meet the needs of new residents.
She hopes to develop ideas that will serve the increasing population in the Fort Bragg area, while she also sees the needs and demands of new residents creating new markets for agricultural products, markets that area farmers can take advantage of.
Over the next three years, Hall-Ix hopes to bring Fort Bragg, Sandhills residents and farmers together, to their mutual benefit.
— Dave Caldwell