'Twice the work': Farmers report higher-than-expected 2020 sales, but also higher costs

Don Carringer poses with the winter squash harvest he brought in at Carringer Farms in Macon County. ASAP photo
When spring sprung in 2020, so did the Coronavirus Pandemic, forcing farmers to make life-altering decisions in the face of an unknown future. A recently published survey  of Southern Appalachian farmers shows that those decisions built a reality that was better than anticipated but still full of challenges. 
When the pandemic hit in March, the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project quickly sent an online survey to 935 farmers and farmers market vendors operating within 100 miles of Asheville. Of those farmers, 85 — just 9 percent — responded by the deadline four days later. Their answers to its questions painted a grim picture . A full two-thirds said they expected decreased sales, financial hardship or bankruptcy over the next year, with 80 percent reporting immediate decreases in customers, sales and incomes. Only eight farmers, or 9.9 percent, said they expected sales to increase due to the pandemic. 

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