Profile of small size US and Brazilian Organic Farmers

Public TV aired a documentary called "To Market to Market to Buy a Fat Pig", in which a Santa Monica farmer said that organic farmers are showing that they can pay their workers, pay for the farm's upkeep and make a profit on just 30 acres of land.
LocalHarvest.org lists seven local organic farms, located in Mocksville, Yadkinville and Boonville. I've heard of others in Lexington and Pilot Mountain, too. There are a lot more farmers in our area who are organic, but who aren't certified. Right now, farmers in this area are selling off their land to developers and making lots of money.

On the other hand, the Durham area has been very successful in synergizing the organic farmers, the local restaurants, the community and the farmer's markets...see link: http://www.goldenbeltarts.com/documents/BonAppetitAmericasFoodiestSmallTownOct08.pdf

In eastern NC, a non-profit organization called the NC Farmworkers Project helps immigrant farmworkers to organize and solve their problems collectively as well as helping them to improve their living conditions (such as providing health services and transportation services). Here is their link:
http://www.ncproyecto.org/lang/en-us/

Most of the food in Brazil is grown by small farmers, yet the big farmers can get financial credit from banks easier than small farmers. Furthermore, vast amounts of land in Brazil are owned by a few people who don't produce anything. How can we research our area to see if the same kind of thing is happening here? Agricultural Extension Service?
Does anyone know if small farmers can get financial credit from banks in this area?


Here is a story which talks about the findings of US farmer trends in the 2007 agricultural census:
http://www.hereandnow.org/stand-alone-player/?fileUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bu.edu%2Fwbur%2Fstorage%2F2009%2F04%2Fhereandnow_0422_2.mp3&fileTitle=Farming
In this story, they mention the growth of small farms and the decline of the middle-sized farms.

Carolina Farm Stewards Association's (CFSA) Regional Director Diana Vossbrinck says that most farms in NC are small vs. the giant farms in California. If the new bill H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, passes Congress, it'll be devastating for most of NC's farmers. H.R. 2749 is sweeping legislation that is meant to clean up the corporate food processors that have been the source of recent widespread food contamination outbreaks. But the bill is “one-size-fits-all,” and treats small family farms and businesses just like multinational corporations. Without changes, H.R. 2749 will create extraordinary hardships for small businesses and farms, and force many to close.

I asked Tim Hambrick of the US Ag. Ext. Service if the farms in Forsyth and the surrounding counties produce enough food to feed everyone below the poverty line in our county (using numbers from the 2000 census): "11.2% (total # living below the poverty line) equals about 21,000 people so it would take a lot of farms to supply that. When you consider that we only produce part of the year, the answer would probably be no, not even in the best of years, if all we produced was pointed towards this 11.2%. We don't have a very well developed fruit and vegetable industry established in this area. If you include surrounding counties, then it's doable on an acreage basis. However, many of our acres are being used to produce crops that would have to be processed in order to be used (wheat, corn, soybeans, beef cattle, dairy).

It would seem that we do not have excessive quantities of fruits and vegetables grown in this area. However, I'd guess that there would be enough to have farmer's markets in impoverished areas to supplement their weekly diets.

Things to do:
--Diana Vossbrinck of CSFA says to talk to the zoning office to find out where the farmland is and how much of it is being used for farming
--Get more farmers in our area to hook up with CFSA for legislative support, educational training and for connections to sell their food to local restaurants
--Research Brazilian farmers to get more details on how the Fome Zero program works for them --Talk with Anna Jensen (Mark Jensen's daughter) of NC Farmworkers Project to see if she can give us insights as to how to most effectively relate to immigrants.