The Charlotte region is on track to lose about 19,400 acres of farmland by 2040. The Carolina Farms Fund aims to prevent that.
The Carolina Farms Fund is a new initiative from the Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit dedicated to environmental preservation and economic development. The Carolina Farms Fund aims to protect 5,000 acres in the Charlotte region as working farms and to match farmers to those properties with a path toward ownership.
The fund was started in November of 2023 by Tim Belk, the former chairman and CEO of Belk. Belk’s passion for farming comes from the organic farm he started with his wife, Sarah, in 2017, called Wild Hope Farm, in Chester.
On this episode of The Charlotte Ledger Podcast, staff writer Lindsey Banks sits down to talk to Tim Belk, fund program manager Aaron Newton, and Cherie Jzar, who co-owns Deep Roots CPS Farm in northwest Charlotte, which was the first farm to partner with the Carolina Farms Fund, with her husband, Wisdom. They discuss:
The importance of saving local farmland.
The origins of the Carolina Farms Fund and it’s going so far.
How the fund partners with local farmers to help them expand.
How much farmland costs in the Charlotte region.
Success and challenges during the Carolina Farms Fund’s first year.
Why farmers, like Cherie Jzar, partnered with the Farms Fund.
What it takes for farmers to find success in the Charlotte region.
We hope you enjoy the conversation with Tim Belk, Aaron Newton and Cherie Jzar.
Lindsey Banks produces the Charlotte Ledger Podcast.
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Preserving local farmland, with Tim Belk, Aaron Newton and Cherie Jzar