Ponytail Ag Campaign Travels to the Triad and Eastern NC to Highlight Women in Agriculture
Ponytail Ag is hitting the road this morning! Follow us on social media using #PonytailAg for behind the scenes peeks.
In an effort to promote some of the amazing North Carolina women in agriculture, the N.C. Biotechnology Center’s Ag Sector Development team, N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, N.C. Farm Bureau and Feed the Dialogue N.C. created the Ponytail Ag campaign. During the four-month tour, key stakeholders from each organization will be traveling across the state’s six regions —Western, Greater Charlotte, Piedmont Triad, Research Triangle Park, Eastern and Southeastern— to interview influential women involved in all aspects of agriculture, from the farm to the lab and from government to schools.
This morning, we take off for our first leg in Eastern North Carolina, where we’ll be interviewing some awesome women involved in hog production, eggs, large scale row crop farming and valued-added sweet potato products. Learn more about a few of the women and agriculture companies we are visiting.
August 26
Lorenda Overman of Overman Farms
Goldsboro, NC
Lorenda Overman, along with her husband, Harrell, formed Overman Farms with his mother and father after graduating with an associate degree in science from Mount Olive College. The farm is comprised of row crops of corn, wheat and soybeans as well as 2,000 sows. Overman is also a member of the Women’s Committee for the Wayne County Farm Bureau, the current past chair for the NC Farm Bureau State Women’s Committee and serves as a member of the American Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee.
Marlowe Ivey Vaughan
Lagrange, NC
Marlowe Vaughan is Executive Director of the Feed the Dialogue NC Foundation with a true passion for educating consumers about agriculture and where their food comes from. Her roles include communications, content development and promoting the dialogue between consumers and farmers.
In addition to her role with Feed the Dialogue, Marlowe is actively involved in the pork industry through the finishing farm she owns with her brother. She is currently serving on the National Pork Board Marketing Committee & Outreach committee for the NC Pork Council. She has participated in the Pork Leadership Institute and served as a delegate at the National Pork Forum. She also sits on the NC CALS Research Foundation Board and is a US Farmers and Ranchers Ambassador.
Her enthusiasm, passion and knowledge of the pork industry earned her the Emerging Leader Award, previously known as the Pork All-American, an award also earned by her father, Bob Ivey in 1982.
She resides in Goldsboro, North Carolina with her husband, Matt 4-year-old daughter Kivett & newborn son Stalls Vaughan.
Snow Hill, NC
In collaboration with North Carolina State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service's Food Science Research unit, YamCo offers aseptically packaged sweet potato, spinach, pumpkin, butternut squash and carrot purees using patented microwave technology. The purees are all natural, kosher and A.I.B. certified and contain no additives or preservatives, resulting in greater nutritional value and excellent color and flavor.
August 27
Jill Sink of Songbird Farm (one of Braswell Family Farms’ partner growers) and Lisa Prince of the NC Egg Association
Denton, NC
Jill Sink acquired Songbird Farm from her father after working there for 20 years. On the farm she, along with her husband and son, maintain three cage free hen houses that produce eggs for Braswell Family Farms’.
Lisa Prince is the recently appointed Assistant Director of the NC Egg Association, in which she promotes eggs and eggs products and carries out fundraising. She has also served as a marketing specialist for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture for 15 years and is the host of “Flavor, NC,” a television series showcasing North Carolina’s agricultural heritage.
August 28
Visit NC A&T Student & Community Garden
Greensboro, NC
Odile Huchette
Huchette is a horticulture professor at NC A&T State University. She has taught several classes on plant nutrition and propagation, environmental sustainability, vegetation for small scale production and more. She also serves as director of the university’s Reid Greenhouse.
Dr. Crystal Kyle
A U.S. Army Veteran, Dr. Crystal Kyle currently farms meat goats while working in the roles of NC Agromedicine Institute Campus Coordinator and North Carolina AgrAbility Program Director in order to help farmers with challenges, farm safely and productively. Her emphasis is to develop, implement, sustain and evaluate a comprehensive research-based educational program agenda that meets the needs of limited-resource and socially-disadvantaged, small farmers. Crystal’s recent research, “The Formation of Cultural Capital using Symbolic Military Meanings of Objects and Self in an Adult Agricultural Education Program serving Military Veterans” won dissertation of the year at Virginia tech.
Dr. Andrea Gentry Apple of the NC A&T Animal Research Unit
Dr. Andrea Gentry received her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine in 2015 and a bachelor's degree in animal science at North Carolina A&T State University in 2011, where she is currently an assistant professor in the animal sciences department. She is also in charge of the goats at NC A&T’s Animal Research Unit.
Renee McPherson of McPherson Farm
Mebane, NC
Renee McPherson is a member of Alamance County Farm Bureau Women’s Committee. During our stop with her we will be discussion the pressure of urban development on farming.