[intense music] [intense music continues] - Let's welcome Republican candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture, Steve Troxler on the set.

Hello, sir, first time on the "State Lines" setting.

It's good to have you here.

- Well, I am so glad to be here, and I thank you for this opportunity.

- We've done this a time or three, but every four years there are, I would dare say, tens if not hundreds of thousands of new North Carolinians who have moved in who may not know Steve Troxler, but they'll see your name on the ballot.

Who are you, what's your background, and why do you want to be the Agriculture Commissioner?

- Well, I am Steve Troxler, the current Commissioner of Agriculture.

I've been elected five times to this office, nearly 20 years service at the Department of Ag.

I'm married, I've been married to my wife, Sharon, for 52 years, and have two sons, two daughter-in-laws, five grandkids, and two King Charles Spaniels.

So we have a full life.

And I live on my farm in Brown Summit, North Carolina.

- You've been in office for 20 years.

What do you think you've accomplished in two decades, and then what are you looking forward to if you can get elected for another four?

- Well, I think the thing that I'm the proudest of is we have moved the economic impact of agriculture and agribusiness in North Carolina from $59 billion when I came in in 2005, it is now $111.1 billion.

And during that period of time, we have diversified North Carolina agriculture to the point that we rank in the top 10 of 21 different commodities in the nation.

So we are a food supply state, we supply a lot of protein, but things like sweet potatoes, we're the number one producer of sweet potatoes in the nation.

Number, still number one in tobacco, but number one in poultry receipts.

And one that people wouldn't think about is we're number two in actually in trout production in North Carolina.

And we've produce about every fresh fruit and vegetable that you can imagine.

And, of course, we're right now into the time of year when the farmer's markets are full of product.

And we specialize in local products here in North Carolina.

- I mean, this is the free market in action, but when you read media reports about agriculture in this state, it's either big ag, which creates its own headlines, or we hear about how the cities are taking away farm land, and so Wake County, you can't have a farm anymore unless you own one already, that sort of thing.

But yet you're telling me you've almost or doubled agriculture.

How does that happen when we are told farmland is shrinking?

- Well, it's diversity.

We are a big animal agriculture state ranking very highly in turkeys, chickens, and pork production.

So that has provided a stable income for our farmers to diversify.

So now the, you know, a typical farmer could have a hog operation, a poultry operation, also be riving sweet potatoes, tobacco, green crops, vegetable crops.

So we are very, very diverse, but we're a small farm state.

We've got about 45,000 farms in North Carolina, and most of those qualify as small farms.

And that is from the part-time farmer that raises maybe produce for animals for a weekend sale all the way up to full-time farmers, small full-time farmers, all the way to farmers raising tens of thousands of acres for export, especially grain crops.

So that diversity from the smallest to the largest is why we can continue to grow this agricultural economy.

And that's got to be one of the future endeavors is to continue to grow it even though we are losing farm land at a record rate.

- How do you balance in the ag department, big company comes in, I'm sure they get your attention and legislator's attention, and then you got the small farmer who's not getting rich farming, but maybe raising a family.

How do you balance the attention you can give to both sizes of businesses?

- Well, we actually have a small farm section in the department that specializes in working with limited resource farmers, minority farmers, so they get that attention.

But we treat every agricultural industry in this state and every person exactly the same.

And this has been a calling for me to help people.

So anything that we can do to help people, we do.

And that, you know, so many times we've had to respond to disasters in North Carolina, we are one of the primary responders through the Forest Service.

But after that, programs that the legislature has authorized for us to go in and help people pull themselves up by their bootstraps, go back in business, and be successful, and sometimes without that type of attention, we would be losing farmers and businesses like you would not believe.

And that is the most satisfying thing that we do is helping people.

- Has there been an issue that you have not been able to solve with your team in the 20 years you've been in office, and it bugs you, and you haven't quit trying yet?

- Well, that one is current.

We, like every other state agency, have not been able to hire people like we need to.

Our open jobs rate is about 15 to 16%.

There's others in government that are over 20%.

But what it means for us is the forest service.

I'm down 100 firefighters in the forest service.

We know we're going to have fires.

And I lay awake at night in drought conditions, especially wondering when that next fire is going to be, and knowing we don't have the human resources to do what we need to, trying to staff our labs with highly technical people when our pay scale is below that.

We've gotten help from the legislature, some help, but when you're running an inflation rate as high as what we've run 15 to 20%, that is very quickly eaten up and we're back in the same identical place we were before we started, 300 positions in the Department of Agriculture that are not filled.

- Why is that such a difficult sell in the general assembly?

Because we're gonna produce about 20 of these interviews with candidates just like you.

Every one of them, even people who aren't in office right now, say, "I look at the staffing levels, we're 20% low in the labor department."

And auditor Elaine Marshall says the same thing about, and now Steve Troxler.

This doesn't seem to be Democrat or Republican.

- No, it's not.

And I have been scratching my head, wondering why there isn't more help with salary levels.

And yeah, I honestly don't know.

I've got a reputation in Raleigh.

People think that I get everything I want out of the legislature, and it ain't true.

[laughing] If I did, I'd be fully staffed right now.

And we do have to continue to work on that.

We've been working on farmland preservation since I first sat in the seat.

When I came in in 2005, we were leading the nation in the disappearance of farms, and there were reasons for it.

We went through the tobacco buyout, people were transitioning, some people were exiting the business.

But that was unacceptable to me to lead the nation in the disappearance of farms.

So we rewrote the farmland preservation law and created the farmland, the Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund.

And since that time, we have protected about 35,000 acres with permanent easements, including protecting military bases.

But that job is just beginning with the number of people we're moving into North Carolina and all the businesses, and the the transportation infrastructure.

That's gonna be problematic, no question.

- A couple policy questions.

When you talk about losing farmland, I've thought about this, especially in these suburban areas, they build a beautiful subdivision just outside of farm.

That farmland gets so expensive, you can make a farmer a millionaire, and he or she will never work a day in their life.

How should North Carolinians see that?

Is it a tragedy that we're losing farmland, or should we praise the farmer for preserving the land long enough to cash out and have a better lifestyle?

And that's a question I've held, been four years since I've interviewed you.

- Well, it's a free market question.

While I love to see farmers put that land on a permanent easement, especially for the next generations to come, you said it, they can become overnight millionaires, and they, we go through generational changes, and the farmer himself, I know loves that farm, but maybe the next generation has no interest in it and they really want to cash out and take the money.

So what we as North Carolinians have got to do, we have got to revere farmers, and we have got to revere farms.

We are the food supply.

Every piece of food that we consume comes off of a farm and a farmer did it.

So we go to be concerned about that next generation.

But if we don't have these natural resources in North Carolina that we all are used to, then it's not gonna happen.

We can't continue to grow a one point, $111 billion industry without natural resources, and that includes our forest industry.

- Back to the military bases, I read and see things where government, state governments are worried about who owns the farmland around a military base.

And we've got as many military veterans and service members in the active duty in this state as pretty much anywhere else.

Is that a real thing?

Are enemies buying up the farmland and running farms?

Or what's your take on that?

- There are, there is some farm ownership of farms in the United States, and we have some farm ownership in North Carolina.

But what we are trying to do is protect these military bases from encroachment or impeded training by taking conservation easements and putting them on farms around the military bases.

That is a great partnership.

We're partnering with all of the branches of the military.

So we are trying our best to keep our military bases strong in North Carolina.

They are the number two industry.

- Are you putting easements on the farms so they remain farms, don't become condominiums, or shopping centers up?

Is that what I'm understanding?

- Yeah, absolutely.

And there are things that, when you're talking about the military, especially, we do a lot of flight training in North Carolina.

Our fighter pilots train at very low levels, so the military can't have high buildings, certain kinds of lighting, impediments for low level flights by our fighter pilots to be able to train.

But a farm is a perfectly compatible use for around military bases.

And we've had a huge response to it.

All of our farmland preservation efforts are a function of money.

- How are we going in the future?

You went from 59 billion to a hundred, what, 18 billion, or 111 billion you said?

Was that just a 20-year bull market?

Where are we going between say, 2024 and 2036?

- There is so much room for growth.

There are more miles to feed.

And even in North Carolina, as we move this population in, local foods can feed these people.

So we've got to market our agriculture to these people moving into North Carolina and take advantage of that as we lose farmland.

So it's a two-sided coin.

More miles to feed, more opportunity for local produce, local animal operations.

But, you know, when you lose the farmland, and you got to get further, and further, and further away from the cities to farm, it makes it more difficult.

- Alright folks, this is Steve Troxler.

He is your GOP Republican nominee for Commissioner of Agriculture and 20-year income.

But sir, thank you for coming back on the show.

Don't be a stranger.

We need to have you on "State Lines" more than just during reelection season, so it's good to have you.

- Well, I'm tickled to be here, and anytime you call and give me an opportunity to talk about agriculture, I'm here.

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