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Due South launches 'Golden Leaf,' a series of conversations about tobacco's deep roots in NC

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North Carolina is predicted to harvest well over 100,000 acres of tobacco this year, and grows most of the flue-cured tobacco produced in the U.S.

As farmers and laborers take to the fields to harvest the crop, Due South takes a look at the impact of tobacco on our state – past, present, and future – in an occasional series called “Golden Leaf.”

Our first conversation is with Dr. Blake Brown, a professor emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University. He talks with co-host Leoneda Inge about the role of tobacco farming in North Carolina’s economy and discusses some of the big federal policies of the past century that impacted tobacco farming in our state.

Guest

Blake Brown, PhD, Hugh C Kiger Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.
Rachel McCarthy is a producer for "Due South." She previously worked at WUNC as a producer for "The Story with Dick Gordon." More recently, Rachel was podcast managing editor at Capitol Broadcasting Company where she developed narrative series and edited a daily podcast. She also worked at "The Double Shift" podcast as supervising producer. Rachel learned about audio storytelling at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Prior to working in audio journalism, she was a research assistant at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.