News

Campaign in support of farmland preservation bond kicks off in apple country

: About 75 people on Wednesday attended the kickoff of a campaign in support of a proposed farmland preservation bond in Henderson County.

By Bill Moss and Amy B. McCraw, Published: September 22, 2026

Supporters of a proposed farmland preservation bond made their pitch to voters who gathered in the heart of apple country Wednesday to learn more about the effort to conserve Henderson County’s open spaces.

“Please vote yes and support this bond,” Jeff H. Chandler, the executive director of Agribusiness Henderson County, told about 75 people who attended the kickoff of a campaign in support of the bond. “We have farmers here. We have conservation minded individuals here, different organizations that you have worked with on conservation. We share the same goal, and that is to preserve the landscapes and natural resources that we call home in Henderson County.”
Those who gathered for the event at Saint Paul Mountain Vineyards also heard from farmers who encouraged them to vote in favor of the referendum. Supporting the bond, they said, will save farmland for future generations of farmers.
Jason Davis, who owns North River Farms in Mills River, came to the campaign kickoff with his sons.
He called the farmers he knew as a young man heroes and described the different ways they helped him become a farmer.
“I developed those relationships with those older farmers and those older farmers were instrumental in allowing me to do what I do today. So many farmers in this county poured themselves into me and into a lot of other young farmers in here,” he said. “It’s our responsibility as farmers to be pouring into these young people.”
Linda Pryor, of Hilltop Farm WNC, LLC in Hendersonville, said the growth of 4-H and Future Farmers of America programs in the county school system proves Henderson County will have farmers to work the land in the coming years if it is preserved for them.
“There is not a lack of interest,” she said. “So, the question we should be asking instead is ‘What is going to happen when we have these young people who want to farm and we don’t have any land for them to farm?’ That needs to be the question.”
She encouraged people to vote yes on the farm bond to help make sure young people in the county who are interested in farming have land to farm in the future.
Gary Steiner, who owns Bee-utiful Farm and Garden in Mountain Home, said he is working to secure a farmland easement for his 27 acres.
Completing the process through its current procedures will likely continue until late 2027 or early 2028.
But if the county passes the farmland preservation bond, the process of protecting farmland will likely streamline the process.
The easement for his property will allow him to pay his mortgage, invest in equipment and expand his farming operation, Steiner said.
Like Pryor, Steiner said the bond will support the next generation of farmers in Henderson County.
“Easements like this will really help allow these kids that are wanting to farm. It’ll allow land to still be there to be able to be farmed because that is all it will be allowed to be used for,” he said.
Along with farmers and other interested community members, a number of candidates from both political parties attended the event which included live music, wine and finger food.

EARLIER COVERAGE:

Henderson County’s farmland preservation bond issue raced onto the Nov. 3 ballot at a pace seldom seen in politics.
County commissioners opened discussion of the idea in July, then proceeded to check off the legal boxes to get the ballot language done to the satisfaction of elections rules and bond counsel guidelines.
The campaign, says Chuck McGrady, is under a similar time crunch.
“Usually, you need nine months to run a campaign like this,” says McGrady, the former county commissioner, state House member and longtime advocate for land conservation. “We’re doing it in nine weeks.”
The campaign in support of the $25 million bond issue to preserve farmland kicked off on Wednesday at Saint Paul Mountain Vineyards at 588 Chestnut Gap Road in Edneyville. The public was invited to meet local farmers and campaign leaders and learn how the bond works.
McGrady says the campaign team is determined to keep the issue nonpartisan.
“We’re trying to keep it out of politics. I didn’t want the Republicans to give us a bear hug or the Democrats,” he said. “I just wanted to keep it sort of in the middle. But what’s interesting is that both of the congressional candidates are supporting the referendum, both of the North Carolina House candidates are supporting the referendum, both of the mayoral candidates.”
A survey of Henderson County voters by the Trust for Public Land showed strong support for farmland preservation and commissioners and others considered the bond issue around three years ago. Then, two big things intervened: Hurricane Helene and a $170 million judicial center.
“The courthouse frankly sucked all the energy out of everything,” McGrady said. “It put every other priority off the table because the number was so large.”

Landowner retains the right to farm

The campaign team plans to send speakers to public gatherings and elected boards to explain how the farmland preservation grants would work.
“Obviously, it’s totally voluntary,” McGrady said. “In the end, you sell a development right but you still own the land. You’re going to be paid for giving up the development right. Since you’ve given up the development rights your property is worth less. But you’ve been paid for it.”
Angela Price, farmland preservation coordinator for the Henderson County Soil and Water Conservation District, explained how the easements work to county commissioners back in July.
“Easements are permanent regardless of ownership, so the land can be sold, inherited, passed down, but will continue to be within agriculture as written into the amendment,” she said. “The landowner retains the right to farm, the right to sell, right to live on the land, right to sell or lease anything of that nature. The only thing that is restricted is development, subdivision and non-agricultural commercial use.”
Co-chairs of the campaign steering committee are Jeff Chandler, the director of AgHC, the farm advocacy organization, and Ken Shelton, a retired physician and longtime conservation advocate. The honorary chair is Bub Hyder, the Edneyville farmer, landowner and developer.
Shelton said a primary goal of the committee is to let the public know how critical the loss of farmland is in Henderson County, which has seen rapid growth inching its way closer to orchards and fertile farmland.
“Twenty percent of Henderson County farms have disappeared in the last decade, with another 20% projected to disappear by 2040,” he said. “There’s a clarion call in my mind for coming up with local solutions, and the critical local solution is this bond referendum because that’s where we can get these matching funds for state and federal grants and even private donations.
“The state has recognized this as a major issue because I think North Carolina is the No. 1 state for farmland loss to developments in the entire country, and we’re No. 2 in the number of acres that are converting to non-agricultural use.”
Chandler also emphasized the urgency of acting now.
“Every year we wait, we lose more working farmland to development we can’t undo,” he said in a news release issued by the “YES Farms and Forest BOND” campaign. “This bond gives farm families a real, voluntary choice to keep land in agriculture instead of selling to the highest bidder. I’ve spent my career working alongside these farmers, and I can tell you: this is a tool they’ve been asking for to preserve their ability to operate profitably in agriculture.”

Cost for homeowner: $38/year

For the median homeowner, the borrowing would cost $38 a year. The local investment also could be matched by state and federal conservation grants, compounding its impact well beyond $25 million, supporters say.
“The idea of the campaign,” McGrady said, “is to bring suburban-urban people together with the rural, to bring Republicans and Democrats together, to bring farm people and conservation people together — and so far, that seems to be working. We have a steering committee that is roughly equal part farmers and equal part conservation people.”
Shelton is urging people to come out, hear about how the farmland preservation easements would work, pick up yard signs and volunteer.
“The critical component is the issue of awareness because the bond ballot initiative is at the very bottom of the ballot,” he said. “People need to know to go to the last item and then say yes.”