North Carolina Small Farmer of the Year Nourishes his Community, Land, and Legacy

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Meet Patrick Brown

Patrick Brown is a fourth-generation farmer from Warren County, North Carolina, and is a winner of the 2024 Small Farmer of the Year Award from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. 

In addition to growing row crops, Brown grows vegetables for a CSA and farms industrial hemp. The hemp hurd (cellulose-rich fiber from the stalk of the plant) is used to create industrial building materials and clothing.

Through his work for multiple nonprofit organizations and a consulting company he owns, Brown helps other farmers transition to regenerative agriculture and works to help those facing food insecurity.

Links

• Visit Brown Family Farms & Produce for more on the farm’s history and CSA program.
• Learn about Brown’s consulting business, The Connect Group LLC, which focuses on regenerative agriculture and climate-smart commodities.
• Brown is a partner in the Southern Piedmont Climate-Smart Project, funded by the USDA and led by Rodale Institute. It promotes climate-smart farming practices in the Southeast.
• Brown is director of farmer inclusion for Nature for Justice (N4J), a nonprofit working to harness nature-based solutions to benefit communities confronting the climate crisis.
• He is director of N4J’s Farmer Inclusion Project, which provides farmers of color with financial and technical resources in climate resilience and mitigation and regenerative agriculture.
• Brown is the chair of the Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute, which focuses on bridging gaps for food insecurities throughout North Carolina. 
• He is a member of the board directors of Kiss the Ground, which works with farmers to overcome challenges of climate change.
• Subscribe to 15 Minutes With a Farmer on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please rate and review us!

Transcript

Please Note: This transcript has not been edited.

Lisa Foust Prater: Welcome to the 15 Minutes with a Farmer Podcast from Successful Farming, I’m your host, Lisa Foust Prater. My guest today is Patrick Brown, a fourth-generation farmer coming to us from the seat of a combine in Warren County, North Carolina. He is a winner of the 2024 Small Farmer of the Year Award from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and is actively involved in caring for his family’s farm, the environment, and his community.

In each episode, I have a quick 15 minute conversation with a farmer to hear their story and share their experience, expertise, and life lessons. 

Patrick Brown: Harvest was pretty good for what we had. As you know, North Carolina, we went through some very drastic weather conditions. One of the most resilient years that we’ve had in a while to have to try to still make a good crop and have reasonable yields. But it’s a part of farming, something that you have to account for before getting started each and every year and being prepared enough, having the proper insurance to cover some of those potential risks is very important.

Lisa Foust Prater: Absolutely. So where you are located, what kind of effects did you have from the weather? Were you affected by the hurricane at all?

Patrick Brown: Yes, so prior to the hurricanes, we had drastic drought. We went through almost a 38-day time frame after planting with no moisture, which is very difficult for crops to be successful in the beginning phase of the growth cycles without proper rain. Most of the land that I farm for commodity acres are mostly non-irrigated. So with having non-irrigated you know, that’s more risk involved when we don’t have the proper rain that we need. So that was one of the issues up front that we had to face. And then we started to get a lot of rain at one time, but we would have gully washes of rain anywhere between four to five inches coming down on our crops at one time. So it stretched out our crops a lot and we had to overcome those hurdles by adding additional outputs that cost us more money as a producer, which takes away from our profit at the end of the year. So we dealt with that. And of course, when the hurricanes came in, they didn’t help any better from the risk that we already had occurred throughout the beginning of the year. We’re pretty much left with whatever we had available to harvest at the end. And I’m just glad to the end of 2024 and look forward to 2025. That’s all I can say is we put that year behind us and we’re just moving on to the next year to keep on farming.

Lisa Foust Prater: You guys have just had it so tough down there, a one-two punch with the drought and then all that crazy weather. So I’m happy to see that you have something to harvest and we’ll just hope for smoother weather from here on out for you.

Patrick Brown: Thank you. We really appreciate that.

Lisa Foust Prater: Well, I’ve been doing some reading about your family and your farm. first of all, congratulations on being named a winner of the 2024 Small Farmer of the Year Award. That is so exciting. I know that that you you all are working hard down there in North Carolina and that your family has a great history and legacy there.

Patrick Brown: Yeah, so I’m a fourth generation farmer here in Warren County, North Carolina, which is where our primary farm is located. I grew up on the farm. Tobacco was our cash crop. That’s what clothed and fed us. My father had been farming when I was born in ’82. He had been farming for about 40 years prior to me being born. So the land was left to him from my grandfather, Grover Brown, and then my dad, Abe Brown.

The farm started out as a vegetable and peach orchard. Then my dad got into livestock when he started out. Then he went into row crop where he was farming tobacco corn, soybean, wheat. And when I graduated from college and working up to college on the land, I helped him primarily with his tobacco crops. And then when I went to college and graduated, I came back here and did some tobacco a little bit myself. My last tobacco crop was 2017. Then I started to focus on soil agronomy and analysis and diversification and proper crop rotation dealing with highly erodible farm that I currently farm on and what crops were good and suited for that complex outlook or outcome on our program. So I started to get into specialty crop production like industrial hemp fiber for hurd and building material outputs and clothing.

Then I expanded the vegetable program that we already had existing to a more focused community impacted crop where we started a community supported agriculture program or CSA. But then we diversified into also some commodities where we dabbled in the market of corn and wheat and soybean and sesame. And what I’ve learned as a small small farm producers that in order for me to be successful in today’s outcome of farming, what I see going forward is a diversified farm, and having a diversified farm outlook is really what’s going to continue to keep a steady flow of cash Coming into the farm to be able to build capacity.

Lisa Foust Prater: Right, sort of keeping all your eggs in one basket is a dangerous way to go about things. So I think you’re really smart to diversify. You know, the hemp is interesting to me. Can you talk a little bit more about how you decided to get into that and sort of what that business is like and how that goes for you down there?

Patrick Brown: Yeah, so I was looking for diversified rotation, crop rotation that would not only impact the soil for us, but could be used as a buffer crop for engaging into a more broad commodity market. So that was the initial reason why I wanted to get into the industrial hemp aspect. Also, we had support from our state and local research or extension research which corporate extension and our land grant institution here which is North Carolina A&T State University and then we have North Carolina State University who are both playing a detrimental role in research for new crop rotations for small farmers like myself and so with that support that kind of put a security blanket on an opportunity for me to decide whether or not I wanted to get involved.

So the legislation was supported into a pilot program, was called a North Carolina Industrial Hemp pilot program. We had a license for four years in the beginning. And then what happened was we were still at that licenses and began to see the pilot going away and the federal government picking it up. So now we are federal growers licensed under the USDA. And the USDA offers insurance for a certain amount of acres that are grown due to risk, which also provides a security blanket for farmers like myself that want to expand. So it’s very important that you have some support, whether it be statewide or federal, to cover the risks to get involved to see if it’s worth it for your farm. Everybody’s farm portfolio is different. My program may not work for others.

Outside of that is to have a great processor that is willing to buy all the product that you grow. We were very fortunate enough to work with Biofield Natural Fibers out of Lumberton, North Carolina. It’s very important that you have that support, not only on the processing side to make sure that you have a manageable crop that you can take to harvest, but also the legislative support and the research institutionary support as well.

Lisa Foust Prater: Talk to me a little bit more about the CSA.

Patrick Brown: We live in a food security region of Warren County, North Carolina. We only have one primary grocery store. Over 13,000 residents have to pick through the same food each and every week, whether it be processed or non-processed food. So we wanted to come up with a way that we could provide a quality product every week to subscribe members where they’re able to come to our farm, engage to see where the food come from and also be able to offer a naturally grown produce.

One of our largest CSA supporters are actually a Farm Faith to Table project that was started by Raffi International, where they collaborated our farm with a church congregation, St. Francis of CC Catholic Church out of Wake County, North Carolina is one of our largest supported CSA subscribe Organizations we provide them with a quality of fresh quality product of 36 to 80 shares every year per week up to 32 weeks out of the year. So we grow about 9,000 square feet of indoor growing space, 12 months out of the year.

Lisa Foust Prater: I love it that you’re working with that church because, fresh produce as you know, it can be very expensive and it shouldn’t just be something for people who can afford to pay those prices. Everybody deserves to have fresh food and to know where their food comes from.

Patrick Brown: Absolutely. I’m very appreciative to be able to offer any type of support to the community as I can.

Lisa Foust Prater: And I also see that you are doing some consulting and other farmer services, which I love it when farmers acknowledge their own skills and knowledge and see that that’s a resource.

Patrick Brown: Yeah, so my second, I call it my second career is to provide as much outreach in ag as I can. I am a director of a nonprofit that focuses on incentivizing farms to transition to regenerative ag. The name of the nonprofit is called Nature for Justice. I’m the director of the Farmer Inclusion Project, which is primarily here in North Carolina. 

And then I also own a consulting company that is contracted to provide technical assistance for Rodale Institute that focuses on regenerative agriculture and climate smart commodities. And that project is called Southern Piedmont Project. We provide technical assistance to five states: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. And that way, farmers that have questions on the process of regenerative ag transition, we’re able to provide boots on the ground to help walk them through that process. 

Outside of that, I’m also the director of the Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute, which focuses on bridging gaps for food insecurities throughout the state of North Carolina. And I’m also board director of Kiss the Ground, which probably everybody is familiar with the impact of regenerative agriculture throughout international and here domestically, where we are focusing and engaging on ways to overcome challenges of climate change. And I’m on that board to focus on bridging gaps and creating ways and opportunities for producers like myself, organizations and nonprofits and profit corporate America to see what ways can help diversify opportunities to create gaps and bridge for climate resistance, resilience, sorry.

Lisa Foust Prater: It’s amazing to see what you can do when you really just sort of organize yourself and put yourself out there, get on those boards and, and just, you know, get after it. So I’m so impressed. It’s awesome to see people really kind of putting their money where their mouth is as far as like being a helper in the community. So congratulations, good for you.

Patrick Brown: Absolutely. Yes, it is all about if you’re going to say that you’re doing it, have to also actually be involved and actually doing the work. So I make sure that I’m actually if I’m consulting on the on the subject matter, I’m actually engaged and physically doing it myself.

Lisa Foust Prater: It’s one thing to read about something to read about how to do something or to have someone sort of instruct you from a sort of, know, in a teacher mode, but when it’s like you’re a peer, you’re a farmer too. And you’ve you’ve been through it. You’ve been there, done that and that you’re willing to get, like you said, your boots on the ground and share your experience and expertise with them. That’s amazing. And, you know, it’s really all about helping each other and not having the competition mindset but having the uplifting mindset I think is really important especially for small farmers.

I’m curious what your advice would be for another farmer who has learned some things and thinks, you know, I should be doing more. How do you start?

Patrick Brown: Well, I would say for a beginning farmer or just a farmer that’s looking to change the traditional way of farming to a new way of farming is to focus on the value add that provides steady income to your farm. And what that may mean is create ways to go direct with buyers. I spent a lot of time in business development of our farm engaging and creating networks to be able to sell direct. A lot of times farmers don’t even know that sometimes markets are willing to purchase direct, but because they just don’t know or have a relationship or how to do that, they follow the traditional ways of acquisition. And I think by going to conferences and meeting with organizations that are looking for farmers to be more open-minded to ways of doing business can create an avenue or a steady stream of income for a new producer. And I spent a lot of time doing that.

Lisa Foust Prater: So one thing that I always ask farmers who are like third or fourth or more generation farmers is, what would your, in your case, your great grandfather, what would he think to see you today, sitting here?

Patrick Brown: Well, I think he’ll be proud of how far we’ve gotten, first of all, and the endless opportunities of getting more innovative in ag, because it was just no opportunity back then. A lot of our ancestors, when they had the opportunity to farm on their own, they were farming for the survival and to create ways to better fit their family need, where here we can focus on that and living off the land, but also having access to opportunity. And I think he would be very proud of the capacity that we’ve built and the fact that every generation put forth something towards the outcome of this farm. And I think that means a lot. Like we did not skip one generation that provided some type of impact to this farm. And why that is so important to me is because there’s five boys after me that need someone to look up to to make sure that what I’m doing showed my impact so that when it’s time for them to step up and do this on their own, then they’ll know that they cannot skip out on a generation or a period. And I think that is what is important. We work with what we have. We use what we have from every generation to build more capacity to this farm.

Lisa Foust Prater: That’s beautiful. Well, they have a very good role model to look up to and it’s wonderful to see all the work you’re doing on the farm to make the most of your family’s land and to take such good care of it for the next generations and also to take such good care of your community. So congratulations again on the Small Farmer of the Year award. And Patrick, thank you so much for joining me. It’s been such a pleasure to talk to you today.

Patrick Brown: Thanks, Lisa. 

Lisa Foust Prater: Thank you for listening. Please subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Open the latest issue of Successful Farming and visit us online at agriculture.com for more interesting features and news for your farm and Join me next week for another episode of 15 Minutes With a Farmer.