Previously, we featured some of North Carolina’s eyepopping ag economy statistics and offered, “It’s not hard to see why rural North Carolinians register massive favorability numbers for the farmers in their area.” So what happens when a big city paper airdrops into ag country to stir the pot? Nothing good. *** First, a reminder of...
North Carolina’s tech industry gets a lot of visibility, and understandably so. According to NC TECH’s 2023 report, the industry “supports $72 billion in wages across the N.C. economy” and employs 291,000 people. But the agriculture sector far surpasses tech in North Carolina. Just last month, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler announced the industry reached $103.2...
Poultry farmers are an important part of their communities. Some have been raising chickens there for generations. But McClatchy’s big-city papers ran a series of stories in December attacking North Carolina’s poultry industry. The papers did so using secretive donations from a mysterious climate activist organization called One Earth Fund. Google’s Data-Driven Reporting Project (unknowingly?)...
Tax cuts surely helped turn North Carolina into the national economic competitor we’ve become. But recent trends risk gutting the positive returns tax cuts can offer in the future. After all, what good are tax cuts when businesses and families must redirect their tax savings to cover sky-high health insurance premiums? The issue isn’t the...
Last month, The Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News and Observer launched a full-frontal assault on North Carolina’s booming poultry industry. The coordinated reporting from the papers charged that the industry is “cloaked in secrecy,” even as the Charlotte and Raleigh newspapers themselves decline to share much detail about the special interests that funded the hit...