Mission
South Carolina is blessed with fertile soil, plentiful rainfall, and a historically strong agricultural legacy, yet we face many of the same challenges as states across the country: farm loss and consolidation, aging farmers, rising barriers to entry, international trade uncertainty, and evolving regulations, to name a few.
We believe that South Carolina’s farmers, processors, agribusinesses, and customers are up to the challenge. South Carolina needs people with passion for growing an agribusiness, because in doing so they grow a farm, a supply chain, and a community. Above all, we need farmers who are entrepreneurs: innovative leaders willing to work hard and think outside the box to bring healthy, diversified crops and products to the market.
It’s ACRE’s job to seek out and support such farmers. By hosting agribusiness workshops, running grant competitions for entrepreneurs, teaching new and beginning farmers the business skills they need to prosper, funding research, and supporting farmland transfer, ACRE works to inspire entrepreneurship and strengthen South Carolina agriculture from the bottom up.
