Source: SUNBELT EXPO, 7/14/20


As a boy growing up in Sampson County, North Carolina, James L. “Cookie” Lamb was curious about everything pertaining to farm life. He yearned to drive a tractor or a truck, take care of animals, and understand how farm tools and equipment worked. It was the beginning of a lifelong devotion to the land—land to which his grandfather and father dedicated their lives. The Lamb family’s cash crop on their seventy-five acres had traditionally been tobacco, but they also grew cucumbers, okra, corn, and soybeans and raised hogs and a small herd of cattle.

Lamb remembered, “My dad was originally intent on a US Army career when my grandfather’s health declined. My dad abandoned his own dream and came home to help out. Looking back, I guess that decision was pivotal because it enabled me to grow up on the family farm and discover my true calling.”

That calling would be put to the test when his father died in an automobile accident when Lamb was only sixteen. Suddenly the heavy responsibility for the farm fell on his young shoulders. After graduating high school and continuing to work on the farm on weekends, he enrolled in North Carolina State University’s School of Ag Engineering. He obtained his BS in Agriculture and Environmental Technology in 1996.

For more of this story, click here.