Since releasing the NC Ag Leads strategic plan in May, our team and partners have been hard at work turning its recommendations into action across North Carolina’s agricultural community. In the following update, NC Chamber General Counsel and NC Ag Leads lead Ray Starling shares where key initiatives stand today—from Extension realignment to new efforts around agribusiness education, farmland preservation, innovation, and workforce alignment. These updates reflect the steady, collective progress that is shaping the future of North Carolina agriculture.

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What is NC Ag Leads doing now? What is the progress of each initiative?

Rest assured, we have been working behind the scenes for months and have a few updates to share with you.

Many of you probably saw NC State’s communication about Dean Fox’s Expedition Extension, where he visited ALL 102 county Extension offices across North Carolina – an incredible undertaking that demonstrates his deep commitment to knowing and strengthening the Extension system from the ground up. He even brought Chancellor Howell along for eight of those visits, highlighting the university’s shared investment in Extension’s future. We’ve had the opportunity to collaborate closely with Dean Fox as he leads efforts around Extension Realignment, and it’s been exciting to see his energy, ideas, and leadership. Our mission is not to lead the planning or realignment process – that’s in the hands of the experts at NC State. Instead, we are here to amplify and support those efforts, particularly as they intersect with policy and legislative priorities. We are following Dean Fox’s lead and are eager to continue the important work ahead.

In addition to Extension Realignment taking off, you asked for more opportunities to keep the NC Ag Leads conversation going and to tackle key issues facing the industry. We responded by launching the Harvest Series, a series of (roughly) quarterly meetings focused on convening folks around some of the key themes identified during the strategic planning process. We’ve already completed the first session, focused on ag labor, specifically the H-2A program – a top issue and constraint for many of our farmers. We brought together nearly 40 growers, commodity leaders, legal experts, and policy voices to unpack the rapidly evolving challenges facing agriculture’s labor system. The conversation ranged from legal precedent and regulatory uncertainty to coalition efforts for transparency. We ended with a candid discussion about funding, coordination, and next steps.

Looking ahead, we’re building on this momentum. We’ll soon be announcing the next iterations of Harvest Series convenings, with details and registration information to follow. These sessions will continue to bring diverse voices to the table, create space for forward-looking dialogue, and strengthen collaboration across our agricultural community. The next Imagine Ag Day will be included in these sessions. We’ll continue to bring voices around the table and create space for candid, forward-looking dialogue. We would love to have you join us. Keep an eye out for more information regarding details of the next Imagine Ag Day, which will be held in late-winter/early-spring.

Other pieces of the NC Ag Leads puzzle are moving, too. One of our current priorities is conducting an inventory of agribusiness education programs across North Carolina to better understand the landscape and identify where gaps may exist. During Phase One of NC Ag Leads, we consistently heard that while farms are strong on production, there’s often room to grow in business acumen – skills like financial management, marketing, and succession planning that help keep operations resilient and profitable. By interviewing the leaders of these “farmer business training” programs, we’re building a clearer picture of what’s being taught, who’s being reached, and what impact these programs are having. This research will help us see where strong efforts already exist and where unmet needs remain. By understanding the full landscape, we can connect the dots among existing programs, identify duplication, and encourage alignment. We are already finding that the leadership of the different business acumen programs are seeing the same challenges and needs that we heard in Phase One. This work will help us determine how NC Ag Leads can best support North Carolina programs — and, ultimately, farmers — ensuring farmers have access to the right tools, partnerships, and training opportunities to maintain resilient, profitable operations.

We are also advancing a partnership with American Farmland Trust (AFT) to deepen North Carolina’s understanding of farmland pressure and conversion, a project we’ve dubbed “GroundTruth NC.” While we know the state is losing farmland – something clearly outlined in AFT’s Farmland Under Threat report – we want to take that research a step further. Together, we’re exploring ways to analyze land parcel conversion more precisely and assess what those changes mean for the future of agricultural production in our state. Our collaboration with AFT is focused on adapting their research methods to North Carolina’s unique landscape and data needs. The goal is to produce insights that look not only at the economic implications of farmland loss but also at how it affects food security, rural vitality, and long-term agricultural capacity. By grounding this work in both data and local context, we aim to provide actionable information that will help policymakers, planners, and agricultural leaders protect the land that sustains us. As part of this effort, we’ve also had conversations with leaders in the state in this space and have curated an advisory group to help define the scope and approach of the research. We’re making strong progress, and our goal is to have this research underway by the beginning of 2026.

In addition, we’re working to build a partnership with AgLaunch to strengthen connections between North Carolina farmers and the state’s growing research and innovation ecosystem. AgLaunch has developed a nationally recognized model that brings farmers into the heart of agricultural innovation – helping them pilot new technologies, test products on their farms, and share real-world insights that shape emerging ag solutions. Over the past several months, we’ve held multiple meetings with the AgLaunch team to align their proven approach with the unique needs and opportunities of North Carolina’s agricultural landscape. We’re now in the final stages of building the concept around what North Carolina’s specific needs are, and securing the remaining funding needed to bring this partnership to life, with the goal of creating a strong, farmer-centered innovation network that keeps North Carolina producers at the forefront of agricultural advancement.

We’re also developing a research proposal to better understand the gap between North Carolina’s workforce preparation programs and the workforce needs of employers across the state. One of the key recommendations from the NC Ag Leads strategic plan was to invest in a strategy to align training and education programs with the real-world employer gaps and roles that the agricultural industry demands. Before moving forward with implementation and investments in a strategy to align the workforce preparation programs and workforce needs, we want to ground that investment in solid research. We want to know what agricultural workforce preparation institutions and training programs are currently offering, identify where alignment with industry needs is strong, and where gaps or duplications may exist. We also want to know what employers need and the skillsets they need students to be equipped with when entering the workforce. The results of this research will help determine the level of investment needed to meaningfully strengthen the agricultural workforce pipeline in North Carolina.

Finally, a note of gratitude: NC Ag Leads is only as strong as the people who make up this network. Your questions, your voice, and your continued partnership are what fuel the work. Thank you for being part of this journey with us. We look forward to keeping the conversation alive and pushing forward – together – for meaningful progress in our state’s agricultural future.