Commissioner of Agriculture elections are classically “low-profile, high-stakes.” Only 12 states elect our head Agriculture person and 10 of those are either midterm or off-year elections. They break out when ads are meme-able.
So why did I decide to take this on, especially against a 20-year-incumbent?
I’ve worked in agriculture for 27 years, from detasseling corn to paying for school with field jobs. For the last 10 years, I’ve helped family farmers and people new to farming scale up their operations. All of my farm clients are still in business and now worth a total of $4 billion. I also wrote about agriculture and food issues and ran a podcast. (And yes, thanks to a friend, I called it “Farm to Taber.”)
In the meantime, I watched what was going on in my state. When Duke and Dominion Energy tried to put the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through my county, I crunched the numbers and made the economic case against the project.
When the EPA came to town (we’re a GenX hotspot), I testified about the need to fix the problem instead of just holding hearings. And when the North Carolina Board of Elections threw out a Congressional election in my district because of a GOP ballot fraud ring, I knocked doors in Bladen County to make sure voters and neighbors could get their voices heard.
I was also looking at what was happening with North Carolina agriculture. Despite the incumbent’s rosy statements and the great State Fair he helps host, my state’s farm sector is in grave decline.
The biggest farmers were pivoting to growing more fruits and vegetables. Why? Because they make a lot more income per acre than the traditional tobacco/corn/soy rotation that NC farmers have used for generations! But word about the income potential in produce wasn’t getting out to most NC farmers. Our farmers make as a little as half as much per acre as growers in states with similar soil and weather:
One consequence? North Carolina’s farmland is rapidly disappearing. We’re a leading state for farm loss in the US.
The cause isn’t just development. North Carolina doesn’t lead the country in population growth—just farm loss! When your farm isn’t bringing in much of a profit, there’s no reason to keep it going another generation. The arrival of the exurbs and getting the payout from the developer is your retirement.
While this works out for the folks selling their land, it guts the economies of rural communities and our small towns. And how are Republicans trying to fix it? Casinos and school vouchers. They have no ideas on how to build livelihoods in farming.
But here’s the thing: North Carolina is in a great position to add more high-value crops to what we’re growing and raising. Tomatoes, for example, bring in over 10x per acre as tobacco:
I’ve got three simple priorities. First, we need to expanding what we grow. Second, we’ve got to broaden who makes a living in agriculture—so you don’t have to be born with money to have a career farming. Third, let’s build out how we do business. We’ve had our farm sector dominated by large, top-down companies for long enough. They have their place—but there’s also a place for profit-sharing and broad-based ownership. We need to keep more of the wealth that rural communities create in those communities.
Moving some of the US’s fruit and vegetable production to the South will also ease California’s water burden. (It’s much simpler than piping water from the Great Lakes to the West Coast—a very silly idea that keeps popping up).
So as a first-time candidate, I hit the trail ten months ago. I’ve driven over 17,000 miles criss-crossing the state. Starting last winter, I kicked off a “chore tour”: helping farmers work their land while chatting about the issues. Sometimes there were carrots!
I’m also talking with voters in the suburbs. They’ve traditionally been the decision-makers in the Agriculture race- so it’s important to make sure they have good insight on what’s actually happening in rural areas!
And I’ve spent a lot of time in the small towns of Eastern NC and the North Carolina Sandhills, talking and listening.
If you want a deeper dive, I spent almost an hour earlier this month chatting with the Hometown Holler podcast, which is based in Alamance County in the middle of the Piedmont:
The campaign is going well—we’ve raised over twice as much as any previous challenger the incumbent has faced and we’re drawing near what he typically raises.
If you want to help us close the gap, you can donate here. We also have some great merch, and you can follow me on various social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, BlueSky, Mastodon, YouTube).
But I’d mostly like to hear from you: what’s been your experience with North Carolina agriculture? With campaigns in rural communities?
Thanks for reading!