A SIGN OF THE TIMES

This valuable article in the Asheville Citizen-Times will give you insight into the loss of farms in western North Carolina ... a depressing and perhaps irreversible trend that bodes ill for all of us. North Carolina has lost more than 6,000 farms and 300,000 acres of farmland since 2002, according to our state's Secretary of Agriculture.

Midwestern corporate farming is a big player in depressing beef cattle prices, which is making life for small-scale mountain cattle farmers mostly untenable.

That's one thing. An even bigger factor is soaring land values, which makes it easier to sell out to subdivision developers than hang in as a farmer barely scraping by. "We tend to grow houses now," said the Haywood County extension agent.