Agriculture

Charlotte explores ways to help farmers markets, farmers

Would Mecklenburg County’s farmers markets have more impact if they worked together? Would that give more people access to local foods? Would it help farmers? A Charlotte study looks for answers.

Should Mecklenburg farms get more protection? Here’s how that could happen.

As local foods from local farms grow more popular, some in Mecklenburg explore whether to push for a voluntary agricultural district to help local farmers. Only 12 N.C. counties lack one.

Funds can help save farmland from development

Agriculture and agribusiness are a big part of the North Carolina economy, and several programs and funds are available to assist farmers in protecting farmland.

From Paris to backcounty Stanly County: the Kron family tale

A Stanly County Museum exhibit tells the story of an unusual European immigrant family and may inspire deeper thinking about issues ranging from regional history, to the importance of place and identity, to the legacy of slavery. 

Talk of the Towns: Iredell County

This installment of our series of planner interviews heads to Iredell County, where Matthew Todd describes efforts of industrial recruitment, rural farmland preservation and the challenges of planning in a diverse county that includes suburban Charlotte to the south and rural foothills to the north.

Cabarrus' Lomax farm faces uncertain future

A Cabarrus County-run farm to help fledgling farmers, one of only two in the state, lost county funding, as well as its electricity, July 1. Can the incubator farm survive as a nonprofit? Its many supporters in the region hope so. (Photo: Nancy Pierce)

Long dreamed, an urban farm sprouts at Garinger High

One year after a nonprofit group took over a neglected corner of Garinger High's back lot, the grand opening of the Friendship Gardens Urban Farm welcomed the neighborhood, the school and local food enthusiasts to a celebration. (Photo: Marla J. Ehlers)

Growing greens indoors to boost local foods, job skills

Just northeast of uptown Charlotte, in a previously abandoned and cluttered warehouse, is Lila's Garden. It's more than a for-profit hydroponic garden. The owners hope it could be a key to revitalizing a struggling neighborhood. (Photo: Selena Skorman)

An urban farm to cultivate more than crops

In a weedy, unused corner of land behind Garinger High School in east Charlotte, a dream is taking shape. It’s a dream of connecting school kids to the earth, low-income communities to food, and unemployed adults to jobs. (Photo: Amber Veverka)

Putting a local food twist on suburbia

The Farmstead, a proposed development in Granite Quarry, would tap into the national enthusiasm for local food and local farms by building a suburban subdivision with a farm in the middle and gardens for homeowners. (Photo: Concord Builders)