Farmers Losing Ground | Gina Smith of Edible Asheville

We often hear about the lack of affordable housing in and around Asheville. But there’s a flipside to the coin that is often overlooked—overdevelopment is having a devastating effect on agriculture.

Today's guest is Gina Smith, the features editor with Edible Asheville. She has reported and written a two-part series of stories titled "Losing Ground." where she examines the loss of farmland in Western North Carolina, its broad impacts and efforts to address the trend. Only the first story was published at the time of posting this episode.
 
We dig through her reporting, including one of the more interesting developments—young farmers forced to lease land from more established farmers, and the arrangements don’t always go as hoped.