CLIMAX, N.C. — North Carolina’s agricultural business brings in $18.7 billion and has close to 72,500 producers with only 33% of them being female.
What You Need To Know
- Around 33% of farmers in N.C. are female
- Faylene Whitaker is the first female to be named N.C. Farmer of the Year by the Sunbelt AG Expo
- Faylene and her late husband Richard started Whitaker Farms almost 50 years ago
- She declares the award for herself and her late husband
Faylene Whitaker and her husband, Richard, started Whitaker Farms almost 50 years ago, all on a dream.
“My husband came from a farm, and I came from town. And the second year we were married, he said, ‘I think I would like to have a farm.’ I said, ‘OK, we can do it,’” Whitaker said.
The two 19-year-olds started off with 10 rented acres for tobacco and cheap equipment. Faylene Whitaker had no farming experience while her husband did. Determined to help him with his dream, she read any farming literature she could get her hands on and volunteered at green houses for experience…