The word “sustainable” seems to be tossed around Asheville and Western North Carolina more often than a baseball at a Tourists game. Yet defining what that term means to in regards to agriculture has raised debate among several farm advocacy organizations and state lawmakers as a bill that could broaden that definition comes up for vote in the State Assembly today.
Language in S.B. 513, titled the “Farm Act,” would potentially expand the definition of what constitutes sustainable agriculture in North Carolina, allowing larger farm operations that do not currently fall under that label to market themselves as “sustainable,” according to a report by the North Carolina News Service.
“We have a lot of hard working, smaller-scale farmers in the state who have done the hard work by building trust by being transparent about their practices,” says Rochelle Sparko, policy director at the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, in the article. She adds that larger factory farms are unfairly trying to profit from the popularity of this label.
The House is expected to vote on a version of the act today.
Read the full article from North Carolina News Service here.
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