Strengthening Our Food Economy

The Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) at NC State University is a nonpartisan public policy organization that connects North Carolinians across sectors, regions and perspectives to find solutions to the state’s emerging critical policy issues, resulting in a more vibrant and prosperous future for all.

Farm Aid 2022 Data

In fall 2022, IEI partnered with Farm Aid, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping farmers thrive. The goal of the partnership was to better understand the priority interests of Farm Aid festival participants when it comes to strengthening the agricultural sector. 

As North Carolina’s largest sector, IEI has a vested interest in understanding the issues impacting agriculture and community perceptions of those issues. The partnership with Farm Aid, and their signature event held in Raleigh on September 24, 2022, was two-fold. First, using IEI’s social media platforms, exhibitors in the festival’s Homegrown Village were interviewed at the festival about the emerging issues and opportunities in the sector. IEI also surveyed festival goers about the issues they think are important for a thriving food economy and to address the inequities among farmers, consumers, and eaters. Sixteen potential issues were presented and participants were asked to select their top priority. Of the 18,349 individuals who attended the festival, 300 (1.6%) responded to this question on a post-festival feedback survey. While not statistically significant or representative of the general population, the data does help us begin to paint a picture of where some Farm Aid festival goers think Farm Aid and IEI can focus their respective future efforts.

Table 1: Responses to the 2022 Farm Aid Festival Survey

	Responses	Percent
Buying direct from family farms	175	58%
Farm to table initiatives	155	52%
Nurturing new and beginning farmers	147	49%
Water and watershed conservation	139	46%
Addressing climate change issues	133	44%
Future farmer education	125	42%
Soil conservation	122	41%
Consumer Education	115	38%
Addressing land loss	106	35%
Community food systems	106	35%
Government support	97	32%
Addressing issues related to poverty	94	31%
Anchor institutions (hospitals, schools, etc.) purchasing directly from family farms	82	27%
Ensuring the diversity of NC farmers	71	24%
Urban agriculture	61	20%
Leveraging internet access and technology for farming and agriculture	52	17%

IEI supplemented the Farm Aid survey data by asking the same questions of those in IEIs network, generating an additional 49 responses. These respondents were primarily white (94%) and male (59%). Priorities shifted only slightly, with addressing land loss as the number one priority among these respondents. While not statistically significant, we do know that there were some differences in priorities based on the gender of these respondents. For example, female respondents were more likely to prioritize addressing climate change, government support and consumer education over male respondents, who were more likely to prioritize water and watershed conversation, soil conservation and farm to table initiatives.

Table 2: Greatest difference in priority interest by gender

	Female	Male	Difference
Addressing climate change issues	65%	41%	24%
Government support	60%	38%	22%
Consumer education	80%	59%	21%
Water and watershed conservation	55%	76%	21%
Soil conservation	50%	66%	16%
Farm to table initiatives	55%	69%	14%

With both surveys taken together (N=349), the top five issues of interest remained:

• Buying direct from family farms
• Farm to table initiatives
• Nurturing new and beginning farmers
• Water and watershed conservation
• Addressing climate change issues

While only suggestive, the data from these surveys can be used as a launching point for conversations to better understand where community interest lies when it comes to a thriving food economy and begin to identify programs and policies that can help strengthen the agriculture sector.

NC State Resources