Silvan wrote:

George E. Cawthon wrote:

The family farm, as an institution, generally passed away long ago.
There are lots of gentleman farms, but I would hardly call those
family farms.

The other weird thing about these rural North Carolina farming towns is you
drive in, and are greeted by a big sign that says "Bienvenido a Sometown,
NC. Población 1280." Then every other building has a Western Union
billboard on it, also in Spanish, and most of the downtown stores have
names like "El Mariachi Gordo" and such.

That's not unique to NC, either...it is, of course, symptomatic of the
large poultry and/or hog production facilities everywhere they exist.
National Beef (packing) is the largest employer in the county here by
far and in-town population here is also now majority non-Caucasian.
National started out in the 60's w/ SE Asian refugees, now is more
Mexican. While there are some problems, I don't want the job(s)
they're doing, and I'd say most are doing their best to make a place for
themselves and their families. I'll also give National credit for not
being a major violator of green card reg's, etc. The first-generation
Vietnamese, Laotions, etc., for the most part sent their kids off to
school and they either became local tradespeople, etc., or left the area
for other types of employment as do a majority of Caucasians young
people because there aren't sufficient other opportunites,
unfortunately. The Mexican traditions aren't so strong in that regard
so a major task is to get them to begin to become assimilated. I'm on
board of local Community College Foundation and various other ways we
are beginning to make such changes visible--enrollment is up, ESL
classes are very popular, many small businesses are becoming quite
successful and these individuals are becoming more involved in C of C,
civic clubs, etc.

But, these workers are not farmers and not representative of the
general actual farm-resident population. I don't know of a single one
who has gone into farming/ranching in the county on his own. Of course,
a lot of that has to do with the high initial cost and the limited
availability of sufficient land -- the entrance for a non-farm Caucasian
would be almost as stiff a hurdle.