“Sowing Resilience,” a project of the John Locke Foundation, was released to the public beginning August 12th. This four-part docuseries takes an in-depth look at food insecurity in North Carolina, the challenges facing those in food production, and offers policy recommendations to make our food systems more resilient.  

Sowing Resilience is a multifaceted project that includes a docuseries, a research report with policy recommendations, and an animated explainer (to be released in September 2024). For this product’s final piece, Locke partnered with the Carolina Journal to produce in-depth articles and profiles related to food insecurity in North Carolina.  

The Locke and Carolina Journal staff have spent the summer traveling across the state, speaking with farmers, food pantry directors, legislators, experts, and families as we examined every aspect of the state’s food production systems.  

The pandemic revealed weaknesses in our state’s food supply chain. A breakdown in this complex system is a significant factor contributing to food insecurity.  

“When one part of the food system gets out of sync, things go very badly,” Donald Bryson, CEO of the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal.

According to Bryson, our food system is robust, yet there have been acute points of failure that warrant policymakers’ attention. The catalyst for this project was getting out into the communities and figuring out how to avoid the next breakdown, such as the pandemic.  

“One of the chief aims of the John Locke Foundation’s Center for Food, Power, and Life is to protect and expand freedom in agriculture,” Jon Sanders, Director of the Center, told the Carolina Journal in an email. “Our Sowing Resilience project takes an in-depth look at North Carolina’s farmers and their employees who provide our food, North Carolina’s families whose purchases keep those farms afloat, and the challenges and disconnects that too often comes between this great partnership.”

“Along the way we discuss the promises and risks of technological innovation, the importance of agritourism and being able to provide value-added products, how weather events and government policies affect input costs and, ultimately, retail prices, how consumers react to high prices, the problem of food insecurity, the steep costs of environmental overregulation and ESG policies, other challenges (from GAP certification to the bottleneck in meat processing), how regulations impact farms’ viability, and how lessening their burdens could promote more agriculture,” continued Sanders.

“It ends with a set of policy recommendations to help increase North Carolinians’ access to good food by removing unnecessary regulations and other policy obstacles, promoting agriculture and farming activities, and helping keep farming costs down to benefits not only the farms, but their consumers,” Sanders concluded.

Associate Producer, Katie Zehnder speaking with David Disher off-camera at Urban Ministries

One of the overall aims of this undertaking was to show lawmakers the importance of applying the “regulatory sandbox” to agriculture.  

“New techniques and technologies are coming into agriculture, and while some may be market-ready now, there’s that place of discovery, as comes with innovation in any sector,” Donald Bryson, CEO of the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal. “We want to set up a regulatory environment where the government defaults to finding a way to say yes and determine if something works in a safe environment where no one is harmed.” 

The Docuseries

“The purpose of the docuseries is to influence the making of better policy that will benefit farmers, consumers, and the food system in North Carolina,” Rene Olmos, Director of “Sowing Resilience,” told the Carolina Journal. Olmos is also the producer and cinematographer for the John Locke Foundation.  

“We’re hoping to spark a conversation around an agricultural regulatory sandbox, where farmers can experiment without burdensome regulations, and to discover new solutions and take the weight from their shoulders so that we can truly see what works and what doesn’t,” continued Olmos. 

Director Rene Olmos and 1st Assistant Camera Christian Nieves set up the shot at MAE Farms.

The docuseries is divided into four short chapters, the first of which will be released to the public on Monday, August 12th, with another chapter released each subsequent Monday. Each chapter will have a central theme: 

 “Chapter 1: Origins” (August 12th) will cover the historical importance of agriculture in North Carolina, the pandemic, and the context of the current agricultural landscape and economic significance.  

“Chapter 2: Help” (August 19th) covers the current agricultural landscape and then transitions to food insecurity, including definition, current state, contributing factors, and the impact of food deserts.  

“Chapter 3: Instability” (August 26th) covers government initiatives and community and farmer-led innovations.  

“Chapter 4: The Solutions” (Sept 2nd) covers technological advances, innovative ways the agriculture business has evolved, sustainability and environmental initiatives, and a policy recommendation for a resilient food system.  

“Every North Carolinian deserves to understand how the food system works in our state,” said Olmos. “Every farmer deserves their side of the story to be heard, so people can understand why costs are increasing, and things are getting more complex, and that is not the farmers’ fault. Lawmakers deserve to hear the possible solutions to the hurdle North Carolinians and producers are going through.” 

Director Rene Olmos setting up the shot at Urban Ministries.

The Research Report

“The research report examines what disincentives farmers and makes farming more challenging,” Kelly Lester, Policy Analyst for the Center for Food Power and Life at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal. “It also examines the major components making food prices high, specifically why input costs are so high, and profit margins are so low.  Lastly, we need to determine if food deserts are as big of a deal as we think, with over 95% of people in deserts reporting they have access to transportation. While still prominent, the report determined that food deserts have little to do with the end of the day with the overall narrative and issue of food insecurity.”  

The research report provides policy recommendations for addressing the issues highlighted throughout the report and the docuseries. The report focuses on three significant policy areas: zoning, the regulatory sandbox, and environmental policy.  

Director and associate producer interviewing Dr. Peter Morris, Executive Director of Urban Ministries in Raleigh.

Finally, farmers, business owners, and other experts shared their experiences, expertise, and trends regarding food systems. Telling the stories of those whose lives are integrally intertwined within the food systems breathes life into the project.  

“If this project successfully influences lawmakers to open the regulatory sandbox to agriculture, it would be a first-in-the-nation type of initiative,” said Bryson. “My hope is that it would be the impetus for North Carolina to become even more of an agricultural hub. Companies could come here, even more than they do, to develop new products and techniques. That would be a powerful economic driver with simple economic freedom as the engine for the next generation of agriculture.”