Sustainable agriculture taking off

The Columbia (SC) Free-Times this week takes a look at an organic revolution going on across the South as tobacco quotas have ended and farming is changing. In era of corporate factory farming, some folks are surviving by focusing on specialty markets, as outlined here:

"Small, diversified farms like Round River supplementing food produced by other local clean food growers and replacing distant industrial agriculture. In DeFelice’s vision, local agriculture provides local people with healthy food, good jobs and clean bills of health. Get rid of distant industrial monoculture farms —farms that produce one or two big crops rather than several small, diverse crops — and local job opportunities grow and rural communities stay strong rather than deteriorate.

"The clean food industry in the South is on the cusp of a marketing explosion. DeFelice says that nationally, organic farming is a $12 billion industry growing at a rate of 20 percent each year. But South Carolina has only one organic certifying agency, located in Clemson University, and as of 2002, only 174 certified organic farms, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That amounts to only 895 acres out of the 4.85 million acres of farmland in the state. "