Burt is a military leader authorized to submit small businesses for a micro-grant that is sponsored by the U.S. military. The grants are small, never totaling more than $5,000, but are designed to help small businesses improve operations and in turn bring economic stability to areas of Iraq that are rebuilding.

The recipients of the micro-grants are thoroughly vetted to ensure the legitimacy and sustainability of their business ventures before being awarded the grant.

Burt and his platoon have been providing micro-grants for farmers on the outskirts of southern Baghdad who need help getting water to their crops. Burt says the existing system of pumps to bring water from the Tigress River to the farmers was in need of repair, and with a micro-grant, the company was able to provide pumps to get water from the larger canals to the smaller canals that the farmers can use for irrigation.

Additional grants have been used to get supplies to the farmers.

“We’ve been able to provide water, seed, fertilizer and pesticides,” Burt says. “The rotation before us used a grant to create a farmers’ co-op where farmers can rent tractors and equipment to work their fields.”

Not all of the micro-grants are given to farmers. Some have been used to boost other businesses like ration shops and mechanic shops. Burt’s company has been responsible for 16 grants in the past eight months.

The grants are also helping the soldiers build relationships with people in the area.

“Even during the surge, (the Iraqis) said nobody talked to them or came to see them,” Burt says. “Now they say how much they appreciate what we’re doing and how much it’s helping them. They really trust us and feel comfortable with us for their security.”

And by working closely with members of the Iraqi police, they are able to help the citizens gain trust in their new security.

“Working with the Iraqi security forces frees us up to do other things and allows the people to see them as the good guys and enforcement,” Burt says. “It helps them rebuild Iraqi relationships and get ‘wasta.’”

“Wasta” is an Arabic term for influence and credibility.

“By building up the industry here, it gets rid of the bad people that cause problems and enables the good,” Burt says. “They feel safe and they’re getting the help they need, and they won’t do anything to jeopardize those relationships.”

Burt’s platoon is currently wrapping up its grant projects in Iraq and preparing to return home in February.

…and Closer to Home

North Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company workstation specialist Ken Colvin does double duty. He is also Sgt. 1st Class Ken Colvin with the North Carolina National Guard. Colvin initially joined the U.S. Army in 1987 to become a Russian linguist, but by the early 1990s, it was clear to him that computers were his calling. When Colvin joined the National Guard in 2002, he put his professional computer skills to good use.

“I felt a real calling after Sept. 11,” Colvin says. “And I had the skills to make a difference. My dad was a WWII veteran, and he passed those values down to me. Part of it is patriotic, but part of it is feeling that somebody’s got to do it, and if I can’t count on me, who can I count on?”

When Colvin joined the National Guard he was employed at Farm Bureau working in information technology. The skills he had gained professionally transferred to his Guard job of computer support and communication security.

But the true test came in November 2008, when for the first time in his 17 years of service, he was deployed. While Colvin was deployed in Iraq from November 2008 to September 2009, he was in charge of the computer help- desk for his brigade, which included about 2,000 user accounts. Even more importantly, Colvin was responsible for communication security or making sure encrypted radio communications couldn’t be decoded by opposing forces.

Though Colvin hadn’t anticipated being deployed to Iraq after so many years of service, he is happy with the work he was able to do. His family is proud of him, too. “My daughters were shocked when they heard the news,” he says. “But I think they were proud to have their dad in Iraq.”

ALAMANCE COUNTY FARM BUREAU member Jane Iseley was the subject of a “tar heel people” feature in the August issue of Our State magazine. The article told the story of how Iseley left her career as a photographer for auction house Sotheby’s to carry on her family’s farm with her uncle after the passing of her father.

DAVIDSON COUNTY FARM BUREAU

GASTON COUNTY FARM BUREAU

MCDOWELL COUNTY FARM BUREAU

ROCKINGHAM COUNTY FARM BUREAU recently held its 12th annual Progressive Foundation Kids Safety Day at Wentworth Elementary School. The event featured talks and information about electric safety, animal awareness and safety, eye and skin safety, small and large equipment safety and more. Farm Bureau logo items, including Willy the Safety Squirrel coloring books and safety booklets, propane safety brochures and others, were given to the 155 students in attendance.

YADKIN COUNTY FARM BUREAU’S

WAKE COUNTY FARM BUREAU

Horticultural Hero’s Dedication Benefits Everyone

NEW HANOVER COUNTY FARM BUREAU Vice President Durwood Baggett should be thanked for his hand in developing the state’s thriving Master Gardener program, but he isn’t done educating people about horticulture.

His generosity will continue through the recently established Durwood Baggett Extension Horticultural Program Endowment for New Hanover County.

Baggett retired from Cooperative Extension in 1978 after a 30-plus year career, but his work was not finished. Even today, he is a familiar presence at the Extension Center Arboretum.

Baggett was born in 1922 on a Sampson County farm near Spivey’s Corner, and he went to work as an assistant agricultural agent at Yancey County Cooperative Extension in 1946, after serving in World War II with Patton’s Third Army in Europe, where he was awarded a Bronze Star.

In 1950, he took the New Hanover County Agent job, which would later be re-titled County Extension Director.

By 1974, New Hanover County was becoming more urban, and he found himself fielding an increasing number of non-traditional horticulture questions. During a visit to an Extension office in Florida, Baggett learned about a program that could work in his agency.

He returned to Wilmington, and following a conversation with the county manager, he visited garden clubs to look for volunteers willing to be trained to answer questions from the public. The response was strong, and North Carolina State specialists came in and trained the volunteers to work two at a time answering calls to a sort-of horticultural hotline.

Thus, the idea for the Master Gardener program was born, and Master Gardener programs are now flourishing nationwide.

In retirement, Baggett has served on the County Extension Advisory Council and helped establish a horticultural therapy program and a 4-H junior Master Gardeners program.

In addition to his involvement in Farm Bureau, Baggett served 20 years on the Soil and Water Conservation Board of Supervisors and is a long-time Lions Club member. He is the father of three children—David, Dudley and Deborah.

4-H is the largest youth organization in the state, with more than 239,000 youth and 23,000 volunteers actively involved in the more than 10,000 different programs statewide.

“We reach young people where they learn and play,” says 4-H Executive Director Michael Martin. “4-H goes to young people so they don’t have to come to us, and we’re as broad as the demographics of the youth we serve.”

4-H began in North Carolina in 1909 as a corn and tomato club in Ahoskie.

“It began as a way to introduce new farming technologies to families,” says Mitzi Downing, NCSU extension assistant professor and specialist. “It’s hard to get the older generations to take on new technology, so it was taught to the youth in hopes that the youth would help incorporate it on the farm. It used youth to grow the village.”

Once the popularity spread, it quickly evolved into a statewide program. Today, North Carolina 4-H has expanded beyond production agriculture and into a club that offers programs from photography to computers and building rockets to raising animals. Youth involved in 4-H learn public speaking, decision-making skills, organizational planning, leadership, teamwork, record-keeping and communications skills.

“We teach them life skills. That may not be something every kid is excited about learning, but they look back on their years in 4-H and realize they came away confident in themselves,” Martin says.

“It’s a great youth development program. I feel very strongly that Farm Bureau and 4-H make a good team, and I feel we have a responsibility to help a good youth organization like 4-H,” said Larry Wooten, president of NCFB, and a former 4-H member.

In North Carolina, 4-H membership is represented by 51 percent rural youth and 49 percent urban youth. Downing says the most popular program in the state is STEM, for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

“We do offer agriculture projects in STEM, but the majority of the projects revolve around aerospace, biology and engineering. The majority of our young people are there to learn a lot of things outside of traditional agriculture.”

Participants of 4-H are encouraged to learn in a hands-on way. Members complete projects based on their interest area. Projects can focus on producing something, developing a skill or raising an animal—and the interest area can be virtually anything.

“All of our programs are very experiential,” Downing says. “If a 9-year-old can actually see force and drag when studying racecars, rather than just learning the terms, it helps them see that science isn’t so boring.”

Rowan County Farm Bureau Member Beverly Pugh joined 4-H when she was eight years old and was a state officer during her high school years. Now a middle school principal, Pugh attributes her career success to skills she learned through participation in 4-H. She plans to attend the centennial celebration and continues to support 4-H efforts.

“It truly was life-changing,” Pugh says. “Had I not had the opportunities I had through 4-H, I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

Pugh credits 4-H with teaching her leadership skills, people skills and expanding her views of the world.

“I got a chance to see the world outside of my community. There is one experience in particular that sticks out in my mind,” she says.
“We were at 4-H National Congress in Chicago and we went down to the soda shop in the hotel. My friends and I sat at a table and were surrounded by people from all different parts of the world. We realized we were the only ones speaking English. That was really eye-opening for me because I wouldn’t have seen that in my little town.”

“Our town didn’t have Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, but 4-H gave our rural youth the chance to do things that the city kids did through those programs,” Pugh says. “I would bet that a lot of people my age or younger have a great impact on society because of what they learned in 4-H.”

While 4-H serves North Carolina youth from all walks of life, the roots of the program are still grounded in its agricultural past, and have a strong impact on rural communities.

“In rural communities, so much of the leadership is volunteer,” Martin says. “You’ll find that most people that come forward to lead in those situations were 4-H members. In the clubs, the members run their own meetings and organization, so they learn leadership at a very young age.”

Planning for the centennial celebration began in 2008 with the forming of a committee of 100 4-H partners who identified six focus areas—life skills development, volunteering, leadership, work force, health and wellness, and K-12 program development.

“We chose these areas and focused on how we could support them and grow them throughout the year,” Downing says.

The committee determined that 2009 would be a year-long celebration of 4-H and would culminate with a homecoming in July.

The homecoming celebration will be an all-day event held on July 21. The event will include the induction of 100 past and present 4-H members into the North Carolina Hall of Fame; a reunion; exhibits spotlighting the past, present and future of 4-H; speeches and presentations from notable North Carolinians; performances from several 4-H groups; and a Rockin’ Clover Bash dance.

“We want to reconnect with alumni, tell the story of 4-H today and use the celebration as a platform to launch into a second century of excellence,” Martin says.

When looking into the next century of 4-H accomplishments, Martin sees a solid future. “I’m confident that our motto ‘make the best better’ will still be accurate, our slogan ‘learn by doing’ will still be appropriate and our involvement in the development of youth leadership will still be strong.”

The truth is that while agriculture has been generally stable as a whole, it is not without its challenges and disasters. And many niches within the state’s largest industry have suffered tremendously along with many other businesses.

As unemployment continues to rise toward its highest levels, farmland is being lost at equally unprecedented rates. Many farmers are being forced to cease operations because credit has dried up and input costs are at bankruptcy levels. From 2002 to 2007, North Carolina lost 1,000 farms and more than 600,000 acres of farmland, according to the most recent Census of Agriculture.

While many of the forces seeking to pile additional regulations and restrictions on top of agriculture are motivated by good intentions, their agendas fail to take into account the economic realities and uncertainties farmers face every day.

During each legislative session, North Carolina agriculture witnesses further attempts to increase the red tape and restrictions on the industry. At the same time entities are criticizing the farmer, they are also wringing their hands over the loss of farmland and open space within our rapidly growing state.

How will the modern economy adjust to a world with more people and less farmers and land on which to grow their food and fiber? They are only able to do so through the improvements brought about by research and scientific advances, not more regulations and restrictions, and certainly not through basically flat funding for agricultural research.

It is widely accepted that farming by its nature is dependent on the environment, and farmers are tied to the land for this reason. It is in their best interest to do things the right way. And, the majority of growers do so out of a sense of responsibility, first, and the need to make a living, second.

How did people survive before there were thousands of regulations and hundreds of groups out there to protect them? They survived because the men and women who grew food cared about the land and did their best to protect it. But, they cannot continue to do so with their hands tied by regulatory handcuffs as various groups continue to pile on the restrictions.

Agriculture is not immune to the economic trends and economies of scale that impact other industries. For too long, the economic model has been pushing the farmer to get bigger or get out. Our current regulatory environment threatens the survival of our farms. When those farms fail to survive, some of these entities and groups may even seek to stop the farmers from developing their own property—the last option for most growers to get out of debt.

When our farmers go out of business, where will your family’s next meal come from—Africa, China, India, Mexico, South America, Vietnam? We’ve seen how exporting our energy production has worked out for Americans. Imagine relying on other countries for our food.

It’s time to stop piling the punitive regulations on top of agriculture and take a common-sense approach that protects farmland, green space and farm families. Environmental protection can be achieved through profitable agriculture, a logical regulatory structure and adequate funding of agricultural research.

Many of the nearly 500,000 North Carolinians who count themselves as members of our nonprofit organization are suburban and urban policyholders who have placed their trust in our mutual insurance company to protect their homes, automobiles and their most precious assets—their lives. These members know that agriculture is important, but probably don’t think much about it beyond three meals a day.

Fortunately, Farm Bureau is not only thinking about the most responsible and affordable ways to protect our members’ tangible assets through insurance coverage, but we’re also working tirelessly to protect the food, fiber and forestry products that feed, clothe and house their families.

We point with pride at the strength wielded by an organization whose power is directly tied to the grassroots volunteer leaders across North Carolina, many of whom are family farmers.
Our organization is 73 years old, and we have used Farm Bureau over the years to ensure that agriculture continues as a profitable profession and as a way of life. But we have also employed it to continue providing practical insurance options to those who could not obtain coverage otherwise.

Farm Bureau is—unquestionably—a strong partner in the business community of every county in North Carolina. Over the last few years, we have concentrated our attention and financial efforts on becoming a more visible and unified organization across the state—and we are succeeding!

We now proudly boast 185 offices in all 100 of North Carolina’s counties—and with the help of uniform and well-lighted signage, those offices are easily located.

We ARE more visible, and we are known as a “CAN DO” organization. With this visibility and standing in the state comes responsibility. 

We cannot—nor will we ever—forget that our primary mission addresses the concerns of agriculture and rural North Carolinians. But, neither can we walk away from our responsibility of leadership within the state and of service to our policyholders who rely on our insurance products and other member services.

“One Farm Bureau…One Mission” is more than just words and includes much more than a single focus.

The country store sold out of home-baked goodies quickly and participation in the auction was brisk and lively.

“The auction has been an annual event since NCFB started the R. Flake Shaw scholarship in 1967,” said Larry Wooten, president of North Carolina Farm Bureau. “At that time, the value was $250 apiece.”

Through the continued generosity and hard work of a lot of people and county Farm Bureaus over the decades, the scholarship is now valued at $3,000 per year to assist students with college-related expenses. There are currently 24 students on the scholarship, which helps them pursue careers in agriculture or in agriculturally related fields.

“I can think of no finer way to impact the future of agriculture than to educate our young men and women,” said Becky Faulkner, chair of North Carolina Farm Bureau’s Women’s Committee, which spearheads the festival. “To all of you I say a gracious thank you for your help and your support with items, money and physical energy. This involvement certainly represents the family of Farm Bureau.”