10-9-06
Contact: Reginald S. Hall, (803) 936-4409

Farmers Learn More about Gubernatorial Candidate

Sumter, SC - Farmers from across the state gathered around television screens on Sunday (Oct. 8) to hear what Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tommy Moore had to say about agriculture, family farms, and rural lifestyles in South Carolina in response to their questions.

The closed-circuit broadcast was provided by the state’s largest farm organization, the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation (SCFB) through the video conferencing services provided to business and industry at ETV. The program originated in Sumter, SC from the set of the Emmy award-winning Making it Grow at WRJA-TV, home of ETV's digital broadcast service, the South Carolina Channel.

Farm Bureau invited both candidates to participate in the question and answer forum. Incumbent Republican candidate Mark Sanford declined the invitation stating conflicts with previous obligations.

Moore told farmers he values the character agriculture brings to South Carolina. “We’ve been blessed to have landed some great industries and manufacturing facilities in South Carolina, but without a strong agricultural base we would be dependent upon other nations to feed us and our economy would be wrecked. We need to work with people to improve agriculture in this state and provide the necessary tools as resources permit to enhance our support of agriculture,” Moore said.

During the course of the one-hour program questions came in from across the state on issues ranging from immigration and water use to eminent domain and agricultural marketing and branding. Moore said while immigration is a federal issue, South Carolina farmers and other businesses need a guest worker program. He supports maintaining priority water rights for agricultural use and he believes the State should invest more in the marketing of South Carolina commodities.

Moore said, “Our farmers need all the help they can get when it comes to marketing their commodities outside the state. As a lifelong resident of the peach production region of ‘The Ridge’ near Edgefield, I am keenly aware of the competition our farmers face in the national market. Right now their efforts are ham-strung as they try to compete with the marketing efforts of states like California.”

SCFB is a statewide non-profit non-partisan membership organization with more than 130,000 member families who support family farmers, agriculture, and rural lifestyles in South Carolina. The candidates’ forum can be seen in its entirety on the Farm Bureau website at www.scfb.org.

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