11 minute read
Farmers recover from Fred amid inflation, weather worries
A year after Tropical Storm Fred washed away his crop, Gary Griffith’s fields are once more full of green
peppers. Holly Kays photo
BY HOLLY KAYS OUTDOORS EDITOR
When Gary Griffith woke up a rainy Tuesday on Aug. 17, 2021, he never imagined that by the next morning, the 12 acres of green peppers he’d grown along the Pigeon River in Bethel would rest in drifts miles downstream, the unofficial symbol of the catastrophic tragedy that was Tropical Storm Fred.
After the floodwaters receded, Griffith — like many other farmers in Bethel and Cruso — was left without a crop to harvest and tens of thousands of dollars in damage to repair. Before the flood, he’d picked only about 25% of his cucumbers and 45% of his peppers. Surveying the damage, he questioned whether it was even worth fixing. At 62, did it make sense to keep farming?
“Last year, I didn’t make anything, and I worked really hard to get back to zero,” Griffith said last week as he stood in his rehabilitated field, laden with ripe green peppers. Across the road hung rows of cucumbers, in total 20 acres of vegetables.
“You have to be able to withstand that sometimes, because you can’t predict the weather,” he said. “But it can’t be like that all the time.”
He wouldn’t have done it, he said, if not for his daughter and son-in-law, Cayleigh and Brandon Phillips. They’d been living out in Nebraska but wanted to come home to North Carolina, take over the farm, and raise their son, who’s not quite 2 years old. At 34, Brandon is much younger than the average U.S. farmer, who as of 2017 was 57.5 years old.
“I’ve been around farming my whole life, and farming of scale, too, so it is a massive undertaking but it ain’t, I guess, because I’m used to big numbers,” he said. In a “past life,” he managed a chicken farm of 1.5 million animals.
“I’m glad they’re doing it,” Griffith said of the Phillips’ decision — but he’s also nervous for them. They left good-paying jobs to come farm in Bethel, and a farmer’s finances are anything but secure.
“You have to have price, quantity and quality,” he said “If you can get all three of those things, you’re going to be fine. But if you end up getting one of them, you’re not going to make any money. You can’t control the weather; you can’t control the price. You can do the best job you can do at your farm, and those other two things can make you or break you.”
‘GULLYWASHERS’ OF AID
In addition to a lot of hard work, aid from local nonprofits and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services allowed Griffith to break even last year, though lack of profit meant covering any personal expenses, like groceries or mortgage payments, from savings. Some of those funds took so long to come through, he had to decide how much to plant this spring before knowing how much he’d recuperated from last year’s losses.
Local donations rolled in after the flood “fairly quick,” said Griffith, smaller amounts that nonetheless were instrumental in getting him through a difficult time.
“Then we had the politicians come in with the promise of everything,” he said, adding that those promises were much slower to be fulfilled, if at all.
“It has to be just about a perfect storm for you to get anything,” he said of the federal aid programs. “There’s so many conditions that you just don’t meet the criteria.”
Since he started growing vegetables nine years ago, Griffith has carried flood insurance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, but the amount of money he got in return for the complete loss he suffered in 2021 was so small that he decided not to buy insurance at all this year.
“I’ve had it all these years, and it couldn’t get no worse than last year,” he said of the FSA insurance. “And I could have done without it. I did do without it.”
It came late, too. He applied for coverage immediately after the flood, and the check arrived about a month ago. He received a much larger relief check from the state around the same time, despite that application not becoming available until this spring, when the General Assembly allocated $50 million for assistance to farmers impacted by Fred.
“Ag funding always comes in little gullywashers,” said Haywood County Extension Director Sally Dixon. “It will be sunny, there’s not a penny in sight for anything farm-related, and then it rains suddenly. There’s all this money, and then it dries right back up.”
Brandon Phillips is preparing to take over the farm from his father-in-law Gary Griffith following the devastation of Tropical Storm
Fred last year. Holly Kays photo
A WHOLE NEW SET OF WORRIES
Mere hours passed between the water’s sharp rise and equally sharp retreat last August, but the impacts to farmers could linger for years, Dixon said.
“It’s always a foolhardy measure to think that floods are a one-and-done kind of thing,” she said. “A lot of the aftereffects, particularly agriculturally, that happen from a flood, it takes years to figure that out and truly be back to 100%.”
The extension center has fielded “lots of calls” from people who are struggling with contaminated soil, eroded topsoil and out-ofwhack nutrient and pH balances, said Dixon. All year, Griffith has been battling tenacious weeds in his pepper field, likely the result of seeds spread by the flood. Jay Johnson, vice president of operations at Haywood County distributor J.W. Tomato Co., said one of the growers he works with had to bring in “many, many dump truck loads” of dirt to replace topsoil scoured away by the floodwaters. F
— Jay Johnson
Neither Johnson nor Dixon said they know of any farmers who quit the business following Fred’s ravages — but both said that 2022 could prove just as challenging as last year. Farmers are grappling with astronomic price increases to fertilizer, diesel fuel, labor and nearly every other input.
“A lot of them have chosen to cut back and scale their operations back a little bit,” said Johnson. “They’re always gambling when they plant a crop, but this is like the variables are stacked against them.”
While the harvest season is only halfway over, Johnson said his company is about 15% below normal in the volume of tomatoes it’s purchased so far this year.
“I think over the next two to three months we’ll really see what the effect of that has been,” Dixon said of the price increases. “Once we get closer to the end of the growing season, we’re going to see more people realizing that they’ve taken a loss, or that they’ve barely broken even because everything’s gotten so expensive this year.”
“Flooding is something that you worry about when it’s happening, but crazy high fertilizer prices they worry about all the way through,” Johnson added.
Griffith said his costs have “at least doubled” this year — but not his revenue.
“We’re still on five-year-ago prices,” he said.
FOCUSED FORWARD
Griffith will never forget the thick muck and the sharp, earthy scent of green peppers that covered his fields the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. But he also can’t wallow in the memory.
Time moves on, and so does the weather.
“I already had hailstorm at the beginning of the season. We had to replant this whole field,” he said.
A week later, on May 27, another flood came through. It wasn’t nearly as devastating as the one resulting from Fred, and it didn’t affect Griffith. But closer to Canton, other farmers suffered.
Weathering the storm has always been part of farming, but the storms are coming fast and furious. Griffith worries for his daughter and son-in-law, but he also worries for all the young people who long to become farmers but can’t make the numbers work.
“When you love something that much, you work through the bad times because you know the good times are going to come,” said Dixon. “We’re all hoping that prices go down for next year. Hoping.”
“If you’re not comfortable with gambling,” said Griffith, “farming’s not the right thing to do.”
Pitch in with Panthertown
Friends of Panthertown is hosting a series of trail work days this summer, and all are invited to pitch in.
Scheduled work days are: ■ Saturday, Aug. 20, meeting at Cold Mountain Gap Trailhead for corridor pruning and trail tread restoration on Macs Gap Trail. ■ Saturday, Aug. 27, meeting at Salt Rock Gap Trailhead for trail tread restoration and drain revamp on Macs Gap Trail.
No previous trail work experience is necessary. Work days run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with about 5 miles of hiking on moderate trails while doing trail corridor clearing, pruning and some tread and drain work.
Sign up at bit.ly/3Qn9Wl5. Learn more at panthertown.org/volunteer.
Sweep away litter this fall
The N.C. Department of Transportation is looking for volunteers for the Adopt-A-Highway Fall Litter Sweep, which runs Sept. 10-24.
Each April and September, the department calls on volunteers to help remove litter from roadsides. Volunteers from local businesses, schools, non-profits, churches and community groups play an important role in keeping North Carolina’s roads clean.
To participate, contact the local litter management coordinator listed at bit.ly/3M7Dvo8. Volunteers can request gloves, safety vests and bags from their local county maintenance office.
Get to know
Maggie. Between the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains rests one of the best golf courses in North Carolina
1819 Country Club Drive, Maggie Valley MAGGIEVALLEYCLUB.COM
JOIN TODAY and 100% of your initiation fee will be waived!
Offer valid for Full Privilege Golf & Individual Golf Memberships. Contact Caitlin Bledsoe at 828-926-4831 for information.
Adult pickup futsal games will be held 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays Aug. 25 through Sept. 29 at the Cullowhee Recreation Center.
Games will be “call your own” in a five-versus-five format, lasting 10 minutes with the winner remaining on court. Jersey pennies will be provided, and shin guards must be worn. Cost is $1 per player, with no registration required.
Futsal, a type of indoor soccer, is played indoors on a smaller court than traditional outdoor soccer. Contact Andrew Sherling with questions at 828.293.3053, ext. 6, or andrewsherling@jacksonnc.org.
Sign up for tennis
Registration is open for tennis lessons, to be offered Saturdays at Mark Watson Park in Sylva starting Sept. 10.
Lessons are available for kids in grades 1-6, with grades 1-3 meeting 10 to 10:45 a.m. and grades 4-6 meeting 11 to 11:45 a.m.
Register online at rec.jacksonnc.org. Contact Andrew Sherling with questions at 828.293.3053, ext.6 or andrewsherling@jacksonnc.org.
New HWA director greets community
Meet the new executive director of Haywood Waterways Association 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20, at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville.
Preston Jacobsen has been leading the organization since June following the departure of long-time director Eric Romaniszyn. Perhaps best known locally as the man behind Local Yokel weather, Jacobsen previously served as the finance operations manager for the Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards.
Light hors d’oeuvres will be provided.
Preston Jacobsen.
Holly Kays photo
Friends of the Smokies raised $85,000 to support the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at its Smokies Stomp event held July 23 at Cataloochee Ranch in
Haywood County.
“The success of this function shows how much people value our park, and how much its economic contribution and protection of its environmental and cultural resources mean to all of us in North Carolina,” said Steve Woody, Friends of the Smokies Emeritus Board Director and a descendent of Cataloochee residents.
The sold-out event drew 120 people and featured a VIP cocktail hour with Bonafide Band, gourmet dinner provided by Blind Pig Supper Club, performance by J. Creek Cloggers, square dancing with Colby Laney Band, and a live fundraiser benefitting Friends of the Smokies’ Forever Places, which is helping fund the restoration of cabins, barns, mills and other historic structures throughout GSMNP.
Friends of the Smokies began fundraising for Forever Places in 2020 and is working to raise $9 million to fund a crew of preservationists on a permanent basis.
The J. Creek Cloggers
perform July 23. David Huff Creative photo
Hike Rufus Morgan Falls
Take in Rufus Morgan Falls with a moderate 2-mile hike Saturday, Aug. 20, led by the Nantahala Hiking Club.
The group will meet at 9 a.m. at Westgate Plaza in Franklin, across from Burger King, and carpool to the trailhead 13 miles away. Hikers should bring their own food and fluids. Non-members and wellbehaved dogs welcome, and no reservations needed.
Contact hike leader David Starnes with questions at 828.349.7361.
Fish Qualla country
A trout tournament offering $20,000 in prizes will hit Cherokee’s pristine streams Saturday, Aug. 27, to Sunday, Aug. 28.
The Qualla Country Trout Tournament will feature tagged fish specially stocked for the event, able to be redeemed for cash prizes. Fishing will begin one hour before sunrise and end one hour after sunset each day, with prize redemption 2 to 4 p.m. each day. Cherokee fishing license required to participate, with tournament registration available anywhere licenses are sold. Entry fee is $15. Open to all ages and legal fishing methods. Paula Price, 828.359.6110, paprice@nccherokee.com.
