DATE: November 20, 2007
CONTACT:
York Glover, (843) 470-3655
yglover@clemson.edu
WRITER:
Tom Lollis, (803) 284-3343, ext. 241
tlollis@clemson.edu
Penn Center, Clemson get NRCS grant for produce market
BEAUFORT — Penn Center has been awarded a $143,000 grant from the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service through Clemson University to establish a vegetable auction market serving small and mid-sized growers in an eight-county area of Lowcountry South Carolina.
The goal is to help farmers sell more produce, increase cash flow and be able to pay taxes on time so they can retain lands that in many cases have been in the family for centuries, according to Walter Mack, deputy director at Penn Center Inc..
Penn Center, founded in 1862, is a non-profit organization designed to promote and preserve Sea Island history and culture. The auction market, which will be in Ridgeland in Jasper County, will serve growers in Beaufort, Jasper, Colleton, Hampton, Allendale, Clarendon, Dorchester and Charleston counties.
“Our small farmers now sell their produce mainly through roadside stands and farmers markets,” said Mack. “They often have produce left over with no place to sell it.”
“In a wholesale auction market, they may not always get the price they want, but at least they can sell it and not have to throw it away,” he said. “The idea came from York Glover, extension agent in Beaufort County. We have collaborated with him and Clemson University for years, since they also focus on small landowner issues.”
“The market will provide an opportunity for more income by letting produce buyers compete for the product,” said Glover.
“It will be modeled after an auction market operated for several years by Amish farmers in Geauga County, Ohio,” he said. Amish communities in Pennsylvania run a similar market.
A board of directors consisting of farmers from each of the eight counties will oversee operations.
“The market will be in an old cucumber shed on U.S. Highway 17, and the board will lease the facility from the county,” said Glover. Plans are for Clemson, Penn Center and other agencies such as the South Carolina State University 1890 Extension and the USDA to serve as board advisers for two years.
“After that the market will be in the hands of the farmers,” said Glover. “A market manager will be hired by February.”
Bids for renovation of the cucumber shed will be opened on Nov. 29. Work is scheduled for completion in June of 2008. The auction market pilot program will run for 22 weeks each of the next two years.
END