0299-GCG-FoothillsConservancy ESG24-FINALb (1) - Flipbook - Page 25
2024 Impact Report
Welcome to Oak Hill
Community Farm
By Jeffrey Howard
More than 13 years ago, Tou and Chue Lee observed
an interesting agricultural dynamic within the North
According to the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture,
the Tarheel State lost 3,601 farms and 302,386 acres
of farmland to some other land use type from 2017
to 2022. In fact, North Carolina ranks second in the
U.S. for potential farmland loss by 2040, projecting 1.1
million acres of farmland being lost to other uses, per
the American Farmland Trust’s “Farms Under Threat
2040” report.
Carolina foothills region’s sizable Hmong community.
Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina (FCNC) was
and heirloom vegetables but selling it almost
652 acres of land that would become the Oak Hill
families who had relocated here from Southeast Asia
west of Morganton.
Many households were growing specialty produce
already aware of this situation when it acquired
exclusively to the large network of refugee Hmong
Community Park and Forest, located just three miles
beginning in the 1980s.
“We knew we needed to do something meaningful
The rest of the foothills were missing out on fresh
and productive with the almost 50 acres of prime
sustainable agricultural practices. Their approach
property along Canoe Creek,” says FCNC Stewardship
synthetic herbicides and pesticides that undermine
would have amongst our staff kept circling back to
food that Hmong highlanders traditionally grow using
farmland that exists in the bottomlands of the
contrasts with mass-scale farming, which relies on
Director Ryan Sparks. “The early conversations we
long-term soil health and threaten local ecosystems.
昀椀nding a way to use the 昀椀elds to grow healthy food to
Taking notice of this, the couple started Lee’s One
feed people in our community.”
Fortune Farm to bring not only Asian rice and heirloom
vegetables to the broader foothills region but also
knowledge about local food production.
“[It’s] the foundation of all strong civilizations,” Tou
Lee explains. “Having locally grown food is much
healthier and allows all of us to eat products that are
seasonal rather than the packaged produce found in
supermarkets. You can visit and talk with your farmer
and know what goes into the food you are eating. That
is very important.”
When they expanded into the Asheville market,
they may not have fully realized the foresight in their
initial observation.
Despite being a mostly rural region, the foothills face
a shortage of sustainable, locally grown food. Locals
are staring at a pending crisis as agricultural lands
are being swallowed up by development and other
uses. This hollowing out of community-supported
agriculture is mirrored across North Carolina.
Photo by Andrew Nelles
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