How Do We Feed Ourselves As Farmers Grow Older?
Charlotte Magazine|September 2017

The staff at Lomax Farm jokes that the average farmers here are in their 30s, tan, and shirtless (“Farming is sexy,” Aaron Newton says). Perhaps that’s true on the farm, but the average age for a farmer in Mecklenburg County is older than 60.

 

Andy McMillan
How Do We Feed Ourselves As Farmers Grow Older?

IT’S AN UNUSUALLY QUIET Friday morning at Elma C. Lomax Incubator Farm in Concord. The occasional sound of machines tilling up dirt rolls across the 30.6 acres of land owned by Cabarrus County. It is the day before market, and farmers brush shoulders as they work to rinse, pack, and refrigerate the organic vegetables ready for sale.

Many will return from local markets on Saturday without selling all of their goods. For a farmer just starting out, this could be the beginning of a ­financial downfall. At Lomax, a farm designed to help people take their first steps toward doing this for a living, it’s a learning experience, a lesson in the importance of ­finding a market for everything you grow.

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