Danny Lee Ford running for SC Commissioner of Ag intv

What this episode covers

00:00 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:27 spacious skies for amber waves uh 00:37 For purple mountain majesties. 00:59 Share his grace on peace 01:08 When 01:12 America is back. Yes, sir. We are doing our best and welcome back to the program. Well, everybody's going to be going to the polls on Tuesday. A lot of people are early voting right now. One of the offices that is up for election is the Office of the Commissioner of Agriculture. 01:40 We're being joined right now by Danny Lee Ford, who is running for that office. Danny, welcome to the program. Hope you're doing well, Yes, sir. Thank you so much for having me. You know, we spent about two months praying for rain and now we just got it stopped. So we're all hands on deck, hay field, all kind of stuff out there. You know, these farmers are getting work done this week. That's for sure. They sure are. And I tell you what, you know, I was thinking, I mean, 02:04 We got a pretty good slate of guys running for agricultural commissioner, right? Yeah, definitely. And we all seem to get along fairly well. You know, I've seen some of the oh stuff going on out there and we seem like kitty cats to that. We all talk, get along, call each other on the phone. So it's been, it's been a good experience. That's good. I think we need more farmers running for more offices is what I think. Because you guys are the salt of the earth. 02:33 Yeah, I actually had a buddy of mine send me a YouTube video uh today of Sean Ryan and Megan both saying that that's exactly what we need to have is not people coming through the ranks, but actually getting out there and having the sweat and equity to get in there and do some change. Absolutely. So what needs to be changed in the Department of Agriculture? You know, they are just a really, really good regulator. And, you know, in the past we have not had all the 03:02 adversaries that we're dealing with now, you know, on a daily basis, we're dealing with, you know, uh text, mean, the uh solar fields moving in and the houses, you know, it's just crazy. And you have all the data centers as well. you know, just especially for kids now, it's $30,000 an acre land. They're not going to be able to come out of school. 03:30 and go buy some corn equipment or raise cows and think they're going to pay that land off. So we just really have uh a hard thing ahead of us to keep farmers coming in because right now I think 68 % of our food comes internationally, originates internationally, and we're only about 10 % sustainable in South Carolina. So I'd like to see that number come up a great deal. And what better way than just 03:58 uh reverting back to how we were in the cotton days with the textile mills and having our community support our farmers is really the vision that I have moving forward. It's a huge, huge thing. And if we don't have farmers, we don't have food. Like you said, is there any, mean, when did we start noticing all of this change start happening? And people just don't seem to mind at all that we're losing our farmland every day. Yeah, you know, COVID was really when it's 04:25 started, I think it was totally different farming before COVID. And then when it hit, a lot of things changed. A lot of people got used to just the convenience of life. There's so many uh different uh Uber Eats and all this stuff that will deliver you fast food, but what's out there promoting the farmer and pushing their raw nutrient ingredients? So that's where I really see it. And moving back to 04:53 trying to support these guys. There is no benefit for us to lose farmers or lose restaurants. I understand a lot of that stuff comes from overseas and nationally, but if there's any kind of altercation anywhere else in the world or in the United States, then that's going to directly affe ...

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