Easiest path to an Ag Exemption?

[skeets]

Read ALL THE FINE PRINT !!!!

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

...The original case was a person wanting to keep bees, the city lost the case and bees are considered farms. A second case in a different city....

Yo, I'm a mosquito farmer. Yeah....no diggity, I got to bag it up.

 

[jyoutz]

I am in central NC and I am getting ready to move into our new house on 17-acres. Most of that land is wooded and within the woods are a good bit of streams, wetlands and riparian buffers so my "usable" land is probably more like 12-13 acres with 2-acres already cleared and formerly used to grow a variety of crops over the years. I would love to have a small, agricultural business as a hobby and as a way to get my ag exemption so that I don't have to ask permission and deal with county inspectors to build barns, sheds, shops, etc on my land. I don't think I have enough land for a forestry program so I think I need to cultivate some crops or deal with bare-root plant potting / growing like a small nursery grower.

I really have no idea on what options I have for crops, flowers, mushrooms, nursery growing, etc and I also have no idea which ones are the most efficient from a land use stand point. If there are any suggestions from the group here as to where to even start it will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

In my opinion, one of the most profitable and easy small agricultural businesses is to grow garden herbs. You can have a profitable operation on an acre or two garden plot. A drying and packaging building would probably also be necessary unless you build a business of sell fresh herbs.