Site Blog #5

 Harrell Hill Farms has been around for over two hundred years and in that time it has made many contributions to the social and ecological food systems. For the social food system, the farm has been providing food to the local communities since the beginning. Currently, molasses and beef is sold and this helps the local social food system and on a larger scale, it contributes by selling the excess corn that is harvested to all kinds of other farmers to be used as feed. The ecological food system, it fits into the larger scale by having cover crops that help to protect the soil and add more oxygen into the soil.

At Harrell Hill Farms the person who is in charge and calls all the shots as to what happens is Doug Harrell. But things that also hold power over what happens at the site are the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services and the Goodness Grows in North Carolina program. 

What will be important for Harrell Hill Farms is that product is still produced and sold to the community in a way that benefits everyone that lives in the community. So not just targeted to a specific group of people, which sometimes seems to be the people that Doug knows from church. I think that more advertising needs to be done to reach other groups of people. 

20 years from now, Dougs children will be managing the farm. I hope that they will expand on the farm and bring more ways to make money. Right now it is hard for Doug to do a lot on the farm but I think that once his children take over it will revitalize the farm in a way that it will be more lively and have more going on.