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I would like to present Ross Young from
the Madison County agriculture extension
uh service my name is Ross young I'm
County Extension director in Madison
County North Carolina and it's my job to
work with farmers and help them identify
different crops and how to grow crops
that can supplant the income and help
their come in in the counties that they
live in in Madison County the number one
income generated from agriculture
traditionally has been Burley tobacco
and for the past 100 years or so Burley
tobac has been that income generating
base that that's brought close to10
million of income into the county of
Madison recently there's been a number
of changes in the Burly tobacco industry
that has decreased significantly that
contribution to the agricultural income
in the county and so we've got in the
neighborhood neighborhood of 2,000
farmers who are now out of work uh
looking for other Alternatives and which
to grow on their farm and to stay
profitable so what happens is these
Farmers come into my office and ask me
Ross what do I grow uh to make money on
my farm and across the state of North
Carolina the answer to that is is pretty
varied uh once you leave the mountain
areas you've got crops like soybeans
cotton peanuts um wheat corn things of
that nature that can be grown as an
alternative to Tobacco in the mountains
however that's that's not not the case
um we have small Fields uh and we can't
grow some of these crops primarily based
on income because for example an acre of
wheat Nets a farmer about $300 and if
our typical Farm has two acres of
tillable land um that's $600 you're not
going to pay many bills with $600 so
what we look at are Farm Enterprises
that uh will net a farmer $2,000 per
acre so that they can actually have some
sort of income in which to uh to pay
their bills with now when a farmer comes
into my office uh there's two two crops
that I cannot tell him or her to grow
and one of those is marijuana obviously
you can't grow it because the law
enforcement's going to going to catch
you and confiscate that so that crops
out and the second one believe it or not
is Jens sang now I can tell them to grow
Jens sang but I can't recommend it with
any confidence that they're going to
actually see that crop to Market and the
primary reason is because it is going to
get stolen uh it's a fact it happens all
across the mountains of West North
Carolina and particularly in Madison
County um in my office I I do still
recommend some growing of Jens sang I do
it with caution uh when I'm on a farm
though talking to a farmer let's say a
two-hour Farm visit I'm going to spend
maybe 20 or 30 minutes telling the
farmer how to grow the crop the other
hour and a half plus is going to be
talking about security cameras chain
link fencing dog
uh access Public Access how close is
your house to the to the planting so
that you can watch and and try to make
sure that your crop doesn't get stolen
um so it's really discouraging it would
be nice to be able to offer that as an
Enterprise to people my office does
research on gens sing on how to plant it
and grow it uh and we also sell gens
sang seed occasionally have sold as much
as 50 pounds one year of seed to farmers
in area but very little of that honestly
actually makes it back with dollars into
the farm Farmers Pockets unfortunately
uh Jens sang is not without problems
there are some problems with growing the
plant it's not the the solution to all
the farming issues across Western North
Carolina by any means there's diseases
and there's uh production limitations
there's rodents germination problems and
and everybody in the world couldn't grow
G Sanger it would eventually flood the
market but there is a real good Market
but the biggest problem with Jin sang is
theft and by the way theft of Jin sing
is a felony and a lot of people don't
realize that it is is a felony to be on
someone else's property and to dig Jens
sing the way around that is to get
written permission within 180 days of
the time you're digging uh and be
carried by the Digger when they're on
the property digging the gens sank and
then you're perfectly legal other than
that being called on to one Us's
property is a felony for digging it so
let's just pretend for a minute that Jen
sang uh theft didn't happen that farmers
could use Jens sing as an alternative
crop and and could count on that income
at the end of so many years to to add to
to their farm income typical Farm in the
mountains got 60 acres of land um 40
acres of it's in woods and Jens sang
doesn't grow in all all wooded areas but
it grows well in a lot of wooded areas
so let's just be conservative and say
that half of that 40 Acre Wood lot uh is
suitable for growing gensing so that's
20 acres of Jens sing so doing the math
on that growing Jens sing is a lot like
growing Christmas trees and I work a lot
with Christmas tree grow as well it's a
long-term crop and when we look at
Financial budgets on it we have to look
at taking an acre of a crop growing it
for the number of years it needs to be
grown and in Jens sing's case anywhere
from 5 to 10 is the range and and my
numbers are based on eight years so you
plant a crop and at the end of eight
years you you look at the income
generated then you divide that number by
eight years to get an annual income base
so you can then compare it to other
crops earlier I mentioned wheat brings
$300
on an acre uh Jens s can bring as much
as
$7,000 an acre per year to a farmer
that's that's a good bit of income and
you do the math out and and you look at
if a farmer had that 40 Acre Wood lot
half of it was suitable for Jens sang
They planted that 20 acres in Jens sang
and you were making
$7,000 per year equivalent uh on that 20
acres that's $140,000 a year for growing
Jensen that is an awesome alternative
Enterprise for a farmer to to be able to
look at um of course everybody can't
grow it it's not something that 10,000
people could probably grow eventually
the market would get full and and we
have problems but the market is very
strong and a lot of people could grow
chin saying and could mix it into their
farming practices and really make a big
difference
um let's say for
example 100 Farmers grew 20 acres and
added that to their income you're
looking at uh millions of
14 million to be exact in in the
scenario that I shared of income into
Western North Carolina uh because of
using Jens sang you right now people go
and dig Jens sang and in Madison County
somewhere around 800 pounds is being dug
every year primarily wild Jang because
it does grow wild in the mountains and
then that's sold for anywhere from $300
to $400 a pound pretty good income for
some people that's going and dig in the
downside to that unfortunately based on
the conversations I've had with people
and and seen knowledge firsthand
knowledge of some of this happening is
my guess is that half of that 800 lb is
actually taken from someone else's
property and that's unfortunate you know
that is theft it is a felony and and
that much is being taken so it's it's
scary and it's it's unfortunate that we
can't promote this as a as a crop as
much as we would like
to um I could hear arguments I could
understand someone aru arguing to me and
saying Ross U if the crop is that
lucrative then people would be able to
afford all the security measures they
would need and it wouldn't it wouldn't
be an issue well you've got a point but
on the other hand where I gave the
example of a farmer planting 20 acres I
did that to make the scenario work out
but in reality the average Farm is
probably looking at one to two acres of
planning of Jens sing and when you're
looking at that still significant income
but your ratio between the income
generated and the number of dollars that
is going to be able to need to be spent
on security that ratio shifts and then
that makes it not as profitable so you
look at someone who who doesn't have
$140,000 a year to play with they've got
a smaller number maybe $7,000 10,000 to
play with then fencing chain link
fencing security cameras dogs all that
stuff comes into play in a big way in
terms of eating away at the profits for
the farmers of all of the uh gensing
that was harvested Ed last um reporting
cycle which I have is
1999 Madison was third coming only
behind Jackson and bunkham
County uh the reason that we have such a
potential for gensing here is our
climate and our mountains and our
terrain our terrain is ideal for growing
Jensen now the problem with it is that
in the past most of the farmers have
been able to live off of the tobacco
money they've been given we all know
tobacco is not a viable crop in the
future and it's not
sustainable Jens sing on the other hand
is sustainable and is a viable crop Ross
young was uh talking about a farmer who
had some beef cattle and um uh could uh
use his uh Farm lot uh Woodland lots for
uh growing gensing would be able to if I
believe his figure was
$200,000 uh uh could could could make a
living uh with the cattle and the Jens
sing and uh another couple of crops and
and be in that range and have a viable
farm this is one of the major areas that
will uh allow Madison County to uh have
small farms and also to um uh be a
viable sustainable uh agricultural
community in the future if Jens sing is
not
protected um then the tendency is for
people to walk on the land and people
will not want to uh start growing this
because it is a long-term
crop is Jensen
first year we're going to show you some
slides later on but it's a small
insignificant plant until it gets big it
takes 7 to 10 years to become
medicinally active so it's not a short
uh uh time uh growing the crop like you
would have with tobacco you put it in
you harvest that year we're talking
about a long-term Endeavor and if uh the
crop is not protected it's going to be
stolen
one of the things that I saw on a video
uh a long time ago was how a Jens sing
Digger would uh operate and they usually
have a locust post with a point on it as
a walking stick when they come across a
Jens sing plant they'll look at the
plant they'll determine which way the
plant's growing in the ground they'll
take that stick and they'll shove it
into the ground they'll yank the ground
and make the ground looser and then
they'll just take that uh Jens syn plant
from the root uh on the top and they'll
pull it up they'll throw it into the
gunny sack and they keep on
moving uh the the reality is that
they're going to have to harvest at
least 4 or 500 plants to make it worth
their while to be out there for a couple
of
days um the market for growing uh or for
purchasing wild organic gensing that is
stolen from lands is up to 500 bucks a
pound that's pretty good living $500 a
pound but it takes a lot of plants to do
that four 500 plants growing in one area
is not a
problem having somebody come in and take
those 500 plants they could do that in
about 20 minutes and be at it there so
unless there's some real enforcement of
this we're going to have a problem in
getting this to become a product uh
Agricultural Product that um can sustain
Madison County in the future
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