South Carolina Public Radio Farmer Story
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EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
North American (General) North American (US General American - GenAM)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
for south Carolina, public radio, I'm conor bullet Even in a world filled with technology, South Carolina continues to rely on its farming community according to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. South Carolina. Some 25,000 farms encompassed 4.9 million acres of land in the Palmetto State. Despite the rise of the information age, the day to day struggle of South Carolina farmers is still the same as it was 50 years ago. Natural factors, most notably weather constantly threatened to derail a farmer's crop each year. One recent phenomenon was the devastating heat wave that hit south Carolina in late May, bringing temperatures up to a high of 100 degrees. Willie Capehart, a truck crop farmer from Bamberg said that although a rain spell following the drought provided some relief, the damage was already done well, the rain was good, but it came a little too late. My squash and cucumbers, there was about two weeks behind time. There was a little late getting them planet. Michael kohn, who farms 2500 acres of row crops in sycamore. South Carolina said that his crops were heavily damaged by the heat wave, corn cones staple summer crop wilted in the intense heat. Now Cohn finds himself in a position where he has to sell less profitable produce such as watermelon and cantaloupes a discounted price at the local state farmers market in west Columbia. I mean watermelon market's busted corn seems to be going up. It seems to be going up, but you know, we don't have no corn because it's all burnt up. So I mean nothing really looks good right now for the farmers, warmer weather is a constant concern for south Carolina farmers, Capehart said farmers have developed methods to combat the issue. I have an irrigation irrigation system, changing the water stations every 20 minutes, sometimes every 40 minutes by using irrigation. Capehart said that he was able to stabilize his crop until the rain hit a week after the heat wave. But for a lot of farmers that didn't have a method to feed water to their crops during the drought, he said it was too late. By the time the rain came Hugh weathers, the south Carolina Agricultural Commissioner said that south Carolina's three signature summer crops endured the scorching summer heat, peaches, watermelons and tomatoes. Blueberries were also an emerging summer crop on the market before they were stunted by the heatwave. In late May, He said, weather said that supply and demand fluctuating and weather conditions aren't the only major challenges farmers face in south Carolina as Agricultural Commissioner. Weather said that part of his role is to help state farmers face long term problems that may occur. Weather described the role of the agency plays and farmers lives emissions really threefold. Working with the industry of Agriculture, helping to protect you and all of us as consumers. And then finally being a credible source of information to the public. We are the voice of agriculture for this state. Mhm Weather said that cultivating a young generation of farmers has proven to be the Agricultural Commission's biggest challenge. Average age farm in South Carolina is about 59 when you're my age, you know, who will be growing our food? Will they be doing it to the standards that we've come to expect in this country previously. Uninterested demographics are finding their green thumb in south Carolina. Weathers believes that this new outreach is a beacon of hope for farmers in the palmetto state. That's why it's important to help grow it because anything that grows our economy is good for all of us. This report has been produced by lee Wardlaw and Connor bullet and can also be heard on south Carolina public radio dot org. For south Carolina public radio. I'm Conor bullet in Colombia.