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To the editor:

Sarah Taber is running for NC Commissioner of Agriculture. I met and heard Sarah Taber and I’m impressed. She is a Fayetteville- based farm operations specialist running for NC Commissioner of Agriculture to grow our farm sector and build a working countryside that works for everyone.

Her roots in agriculture run deep. Born to a military family with roots in Harlan County, Ky., she helped operate her family’s small holdings and took field, garment shop, and factory jobs to pay for school.

Sarah Taber is raising her family in Fayetteville, where her husband teaches at Fayetteville State. Taber earned a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and a doctoral degree in plant medicine from the University of Florida.

At a young age, Sarah learned that romanticizing farms doesn’t put food on the table. Agriculture has to be a viable livelihood or it’s just not worth doing. Dr. Taber, a crop scientist and expert in food supply chains, safety, and infrastructure, has spent the last 10 years specializing in farm operations, helping clients build agricultural businesses that are worth $4 billion today. This experience as an agricultural leader taught her how to bring new people and perspectives into agriculture.

Failure is common in the highly competitive greenhouse sector; but all of Taber’s farm clients are still in operation, including those who began with little or no experience in agriculture. All too often, our leaders treat the loss of farms and farmers as inevitable. But she says it’s not.

Sarah states North Carolina has long been a rural state. Some fear that as our population grows, agriculture will lose its position as our state’s top industry. And there’s good reason for concern: our state’s farm sector has been declining for 20 years.

But there are two important things to keep in mind. The Taber campaign states “People are ready for change,” Taber explained. “For many years now, our farms’ income has lagged behind their peers in Georgia, Iowa, and Virginia. The economy in many of our rural areas is suffering as a result. The farmers in North Carolina’s rich countryside face the same market, weather, and soil conditions as they do in Georgia and Virginia. But our neighbors are earning up to twice as much per acre as we are.”

She says we can do better. There are so many opportunities for North Carolina agriculture to reverse its decline and start a vibrant new life. But to get there, we have to face the fact that our farm sector is underperforming. It’s leaders’ job to be honest about where we are, and map out a better future.  S

After 20 years with the same commissioner of agriculture, is North Carolinians ready for a change?

Deb Strube

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