PFAFFTOWN, N.C. —
With gas and oil prices continuing to climb, businesses in the Piedmont Triad are feeling the pain at the pump. One local farm is working to limit the impact on its bottom line and customers.
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You can’t beat buying local, especially when it comes to fresh food. Producing it is a calling that Elliot Seldner has prided himself on for the last decade, owning and operating fair share farms. But from buying and planting seed to harvesting and shipping produce — it’s no surprise that diesel is a necessity for farms like his, and no surprise they’re preparing for an impact on their business.
"It used to be like 100 bucks to fill up the delivery truck; now it's double that. That's nuts," said Elliot. "We do count on our machines for being able to multiply the output of our labor, so we can't do everything by hand. So we need our equipment, and you know, higher powered equipment runs on diesel, so that's been painful at the pump. We also have little mobile furnaces that we can roll in, and like if it gets too cold, we can supplement."
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He says pre-war, fuel costs ate into about 2-3% of their revenue — now, he says that number will likely increase by 50%.
Elliot expects to feel that pain in other areas, too.
"We buy very specific inputs for our crops, and we source them from specific companies who might be smaller than big Agriculture companies," he explained. "So any of us who are specializing, more of our costs are a little bit more retail, so that means stuff is going to go up."
He says the farm is doing its best to plan ahead, stocking up on supplies where they can, to offset costs and minimize the impact to customers.
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"We're here to serve, and we have a calling to do that," he said. "And so we're not trying to disrupt people's purchasing habits by changing the price on them all the time."
Elliot says he’s watching diesel prices and the news closely — and even if oil started flowing freely tomorrow, it would likely take some time before farms like his could feel those effects.
You can find a graph detailing gas prices across North Carolina and the U.S. here.
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