With Farmers to Food Banks, we raised more than $450,000 from generous donors, gave 20,217 boxes of fresh produce to South Carolina families, and bought food from 32 local farms. It’s times like these that I am most proud of the staff at the Department of Agriculture for going the extra mile.
Months later, things are still difficult for some farmers.
But while we had some bad flooding in the spring, it’s turned out to be a decent year for many crops in South Carolina.
Peaches were popular as consumers sought sweet, simple pleasures.
Corn yields were up and peanut production appears to be following that path. As of this writing, fall watermelon season is still going strong and the soybean and cotton crops look good.
Food, farming awareness
One silver lining of the virus is that food supply and farming awareness is at an all-time high. Supply-chain disruptions, more home cooking and other factors have people thinking about where their food comes from. That has made for a good market this year for many of our farm products.
Fortunately, we’ve had the Certified South Carolina program in place since 2007 to help consumers identify local food.
Recently, we released a new study by University of South Carolina research economist Dr. Joey Von Nessen showing that Certified South Carolina is a major success.
