Sunday marked a very big day for Selma, Dallas County and Alabama’s Black Belt.

The groundbreaking event, officially marking the beginning of the construction process of the Black Belt Family Fruit and Vegetable Marketing and Innovation Center, proved there is a focused approached on ensuring the independent and rural farmer in this area have a way to sell their goods to a wide range of customers.

The venture, funded by the Alabama Legislature over the past six years, is a project a long time in the making and a project we hope has a long time positive impact on our area.

This is the first such project brought about by Alabama’s land grand universities Tuskegee, Alabama A&M, and Auburn and one they plan to duplicate in other areas if successful.

In addition to the research components of this planned facility, the real impact — the impact our farmers are most looking for — is the buying power, rather the selling power, the facility and project provides in selling their products to companies such as Walmart and Whole Foods.

By themselves, individual farmers do not have the power, the clout, to attract the attention of such companies.

Together, and through this facility, our farmers now have another way to make their efforts bring in a little more money.

We applaud the efforts of these universities and our elected officials who made this dream a reality. Now, hard work remains and that is to ensure construction begins and the facility is up and running as quickly as possible.

Our farmers and their customers are waiting.  v