Farmland

Team is: Gena, Emily, Joseph

=**Time line**= March 16 - Complete time line and start on questions! March 23 - Have at least 2-3 of the questions done March 30 - Have all the questions (at least 1-5) April 6 - Start compiling data. Get all tables, maps, graphs, and writing done. April 13 - Create final report draft and power point presentation April 20 - Practice runs in class April 28 - Final presentations

Objective: Our objective is to determine the amounts of farmland in the triangle and the environmental programs the farms are involved in.

We plan on picking one county in the TLC district. For this county we will contact the NRCS or other organizations to find exsisting data on land area covered used in farming. Also we will find information on the environmental programs on these properties or lack there of.

For the final project, we want to identifiy the targeted environmental programs and how they actually help the environment.

Chatham County :) is our target county!

P.O. Box 309, County Agriculture Building 45 South Street, Pittsboro, NC 27312
 * Current Contacts:**
 * Chatham County extension agent: Debbie Roos
 * www.chathamnc.org/Index.aspx?
 * www.agr.state.nc.us/stats/census.html
 * www.ers.usda.gov/StateFacts/NC.html
 * www.lib.ncsu.edu/gis/counties.html
 * www.lib.ncsu.edu/gis/datalist.html
 * www.chathamnc.org
 * Chatham Co. NRCS: phone:(919)542-2244
 * []
 * []
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 * OFFICE:** 45 South Street, County Agriculture Building, Pittsboro, NC
 * OFFICE HOURS:** 7:30 am-5 pm Monday-Thursday; 7:30 am-4 pm Friday
 * MAILING ADDRESS:** P. O. Box 309, Pittsboro, NC 27312-0309
 * PHONE:** 919-542-8240
 * DIRECTOR:** Brenda Williams
 * EMAIL:** brenda.williams@chathamnc.org


 * Tasks:**
 * 1) How many acres of farmland is in Chatham county?
 * 2) How are these acres divided between different types of farming? ie pasture, crops, hay etc... **provide maps and graphs to display this**
 * 3) What are the types of crops grown in Chatham County and what are their yields?
 * 4) How many acres of farmland, in Chatham County, are currently in evironmental programs? How many acres in each program? What typesof farming are in each program? **provide graphs and maps to display this**
 * 5) ====What are the environmental programs and how do they help the environment? Completed!====
 * 6) What are the agriculture economics like in Chatham county?
 * 7) What is the local agriculture market like in Chatham County?

OLD STUFF

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<<george 23 Feb - No activity on this page since 11 Feb!! What are you doing? Where is it documented? I've seen ideas in your essays, and you keep talking about contacting people. Have you do so yet? Where are the notes from the conversations? What have you learned? How can I help? What do you need? I can't work without information. Please get together, come to agreement on your objectives and products (tables, graphs, etc), post them here so I and others can comment - move to the next level of detail from what you have below. You might be working hard on this, but I don't see any evidence here. Please help me help you. Thanks.>>

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<<george 27 Jan - Item 1 is an advocacy piece, and our effort is about measurement / monitoring. Developing this pamphlet will tell us nothing about the status of farmland in the Triangle. That is not to say such pamphlets have no value or are not important, but this is not our mission. Objective 2 is too focused on TLC sites and trying to create management prescriptions - also important, but also not our mission. Please revisit the Heinz report sections on farmland and the Regional Concept developed for TLC. If we want to know if TLC is meeting its objective of creating a Triangle in which there is locally grown (and consumed) food and fiber, don't we need to know things like acres of cropland, crop yield, crop value ($), amount sold through CSAs? If we watch such things through time, would we not start to see if what is happening here is supporting locally grown food and fiber?>>