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Sustainable Agriculture Workshop November 17th - Join Mountain BizWorks on Thursday, November 17th 2011 from 6-8pm for Lee Mink’s Sustainable Agricultural Workshop at the Mill Spring Ag Center.  The presentation will include real life examples of challenges faced by the agricultural community, as well as an opportunity for Q&A. If you are interested in learning about sustainable agriculture, including what to grow and how to grow it, this is a workshop you will not want to miss!

 
Lee Mink started farming in Alabama as a home gardener in the 80’s, with the aim of providing healthy food for his family.  Less-than-ideal soil forced Lee to learn how to manage soil in the best way…through experience.  He is a great proponent of using cover crops, green manure and compost to improve soil health.  “I didn’t choose farming, farming chose me,” Lee says.  As Lee learned more about big agribusiness and its detriments to the health of land and humans, he became an activist in the sustainable farming movement.

 
Today, Lee Mink owns Leap Farm, located in Polk County. This bio-diverse, GMO-free, sustainable farm specializes in organic methods.  Lee chooses to sell his produce within a 25 mile range of the farm.  He insists that at its essence, sustainable farming is all about local service – local farms providing food to local residents and restaurants.  Lee is also an expert in marketing and value added products.  He sells both wholesale and retail and knows that there is a home for everything he plants when he plants it. 
The workshop will also cover tips for marketing your business. Developing your market for everything you grow is key to a successful business plan.  Diversity of crops, specialty crops and value added products are the building blocks of great sales.  Lee is enthusiastic about educating and sharing his agricultural experience with people, especially young people. Additionally, this avid seed saver will create a passion in anyone that has an ear to hear about the awareness concerning the relationships among soil, plants, seeds, weather, the cycles of the year, and our roles as stewards that preserve this knowledge for future generations.

 
Mountain BizWorks is pleased to sponsor this workshop and to have Lee Mink share his expertise with the community to help farm enterprises flourish.  “We are lucky to have Lee Mink farming in our community,” says Mountain BizWorks Ag-Biz Program Director Jo Ann Miksa-Blackwell, “and even luckier that he is so willing to share his knowledge and wisdom with the community.”  Participants are sure to come away with knowledge, connections and a new way of looking at sustainable agriculture.
Mountain BizWorks (mountainbizworks.org) is a non-profit community development financial institution that provides lending, consulting, and training to small businesses in Western NC. Its Community Agriculture Business Alliance (CABA) aims to build a more vibrant local economy in the region through agriculture.

 
The Polk County Office of Agricultural Development (polkcountyfarms.org) is focused on both creating new agricultural businesses and enhancing existing operations as part of a rural development and community strategy.  Workshops like this are becoming a critical forum for achieving these goals. 
Those interested in learning more about sustainable agriculture are encouraged to bring a dish and enjoy the peer group environment and networking session on Thursday, November 17th from 6-8pm. For more information about Mountain BizWorks or this event, please call:  Jo Ann Miksa-Blackwell at 828-894-1000, June Ellen Bradley at 828-899-2789, or Lynn Sprague at 828-894-2281.
This project was supported by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Grant # 2010-49400-21817.

October 13- December 8, 2011: Isothermal Community College's Polk Center, in cooperation with Mill Spring Agricultural Development Center, will be offering an Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture series every Thursday evening from 6pm to 8pm. Check out our Google Event Calendar below for more details or Isothermal's online brochure. Call (828) 894-3092 to register. 
October 2011: At Polk County High School, a couple hundred students are now learning about agriculture due to a community-wide decision that educating students on agriculture is important. With help from several community partners, including Polk County Farm Bureau, the community purchased land adjacent to the high school and turned it into a working farm.
October, 2011: Western N.C. cattle producers are smiling more these days.
That is because a new livestock market means no more long trips to out of state markets to sell their cattle. This is another project that brought a lot of folks together: cattle producers and various community groups worked side-by-side to make the facility a reality.