Agriculture: The Candidates' Positions

What is one specific thing you would change about how the department operates?

Troxler: "I've made a lot of changes since I went in," he said. "I think being able to obtain (more) resources to move these programs forward. We've got to encourage the legislature to fund the farmland preservation trust fund at a significant level -- to make sure we have the resources and personnel to maintain a safe food supply."

Ansley: "One of the things I would do is bring everybody together. I want to sit everybody down at a table, a theoretical table, and have us look at what is going to be best for North Carolina and move forward. Look at the biofuels."

What will it take to help small farms survive?

Troxler: "We have a group that works with small and minority farmers. It works to help them develop markets, figure out where the niches are: pasture-raised pork, free-range beef and chickens, organics.

"The farmland preservation trust funds -- term easements and permanent easements help get money into farming operations."

Ansley: "The estate taxes -- when somebody dies in the family, many times the taxes will cause you to sell the farm. See if you can find a way to put a moratorium on the taxes."

"We have to help small farmers market better. "

Gov. Mike Easley appointed a task force (Troxler was a member) on preventing pesticide exposure in response to the state's case against tomato grower Ag-Mart, which was accused of forcing its employees to work in fields with freshly sprayed pesticides. The legislature adopted only a few of the recommendations. Should the state do more?

Troxler: "We're doing a good job with the rules and regulations we have in place. We do everything we can to protect workers. Eighty-five percent of pesticide exposures come from within the home. We are training our farmers to do a good job. There's always room for improvements. If you look at North Carolina overall, we're doing a good job protecting not only the workers but the farmers."

Ansley: "I think what we need to do is have training and accountability. Along with getting that accomplished is doing random checks around the state. We need to have spot checks. We have to protect the farmworkers and protect the land. Drift, runoff -- we have to make sure that we're stopping that with all the vigor we can."