WNC AgOptions Featured in WNC Business Magazine
WNC AgOptions is featured in the Q3 2026 issue of WNC Business magazine, in a story on how the grant program is helping farms across Western North Carolina stay viable through changing conditions.
The article highlights a strong year for the program. This cycle, 44 farm businesses across the region shared a combined $440,000 to invest in equipment, infrastructure, and new production systems, from processing equipment and cold storage to on-farm improvements. Administered by WNC Communities and funded by the NC Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, the grants are designed to help family farms remain profitable and sustainable.
The piece also spotlights two farms putting their grants to work. Wild East Farm upgraded its vegetable wash-and-pack operation with expanded cold storage and a root washer, cutting labor and boosting capacity. Ivy Creek Family Farm is installing solar-powered fans to cool high tunnels that increasingly overheat as summers get warmer.
As Executive Director Jennifer Ferre put it in the article, “we want to keep farms farming.”
The story also points to an encouraging shift: applications nearly doubled this cycle, and the average age of applicants has dropped from 56 in 2012 to 43 in the most recent round, a sign that a younger generation is choosing to build a business on the land.
