COMM OF AG CANDIDATE JEREMY CANNON STOPS IN 6/8/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:39

So I was reading about what the responsibility of the Commissioner of Agriculture is. And it really does impact all of us. It's not just someone who impacts the plight of the farmers. So maybe uh give us a a little bit of what you understand the Commissioner of Agriculture role to be.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Well, uh, you know, you probably don't have enough time to talk about it all, but you know, this is a huge undertaking. It is not a vote that should be taken lightly. So uh obviously you've read some of that online, but you know, w obviously we think about the farming side and the food side. Um creating markets for farmers and ranchers and and the timber industry. We don't talk about that very much, but they're also under that umbrella. But you also have your food safety, food protection, you have food inspections. Um they he's actually over the restaurants now. After the DHEC split, all your restaurants and your kitchens are now inspected through SEDA. So he's in charge of that. Also, your gas pumps and your weights and measures at the grocery store. You know, making sure that you're buying a pound of meat or that you are actually getting a pound of meat, that you're buying a gallon of gas, it actually is a gallon of gas that you're paying for, and it is the octane that they said they're getting. So it is a wide range of responsibilities and um really keeping the consumer safe, but also keep protecting farmers and ranchers, and not only um um for protecting markets, but also to recruit markets to our state. And that's something that we've really failed on recently, but um is while I'm running.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

This is a very important role, obviously. And now that I know that it you even have um for this commissioner of agriculture role has taken on the food safety. I I briefly owned a restaurant, and that is so important to for the public's uh health and safety. Um and so very interesting. What uh do you what is your background and what makes you qualified to be in this position that really is a tremendous role?

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Well, my background is a fourth generation farmer from Clarendon County. I've I've been here on the farm in Turbosville, our family farm for all my 45 years. Um we I I've done a little bit of everything, and I think the thing that makes sets me out apart is being is having that experience on the farm, managing managing a farm, seeing all aspects of agriculture, not just the consumer side, which I also see, but um we we grow anything under the sun. We've we're historically tobacco farmers, we grew corn, soybeans, peanuts, cotton, wheat, but we also grow 20 ives of produce, and this is where our food safety part comes in that I have the experience on. We have to do food safety always on our farm so we can sell it in food lines throughout the state. We we are probably in about six to six different stores, a part of local goodness. Um, we also grow Angus cattle, we sell our beef and our produce at our market here on our farm. So I've seen a lot, and I think my experience um on the farm sets me apart. But also there are some things that I've done for agriculture for cyclone ag that no one else can save.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

Tell us what that is.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Okay, one thing that I've done is I spearheaded the FarmAid Fund 2016 through Farm Bureau to help save ag after the flood in 2015. We had 27 inches in three days on our farm. We were considered ground zero, Clarendon County was for for the flood. So I had to spend time in Columbia working with the General Assembly, educating them on why we need agriculture, what what is the huge impact that we are number one in the state in industry when you combine ag and timber.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

Why wasn't that losing why wasn't the commissioner of agriculture doing that?

SPEAKER_01 4:43

That's that's why I'm running list, and because we have someone who was not historically off the farm. Um his he had a family farm, but he actually came from the banking side when he was appointed by Sanford. But if you don't if you've never lived it, if you haven't experienced it, um it's just you know, that conversation, that language, how to explain it um to people where they can understand, you you don't have that knowledge. Um so it it's different for me, and that's why I'm so passionate about it, because I know it, I've lived it, and I I learned really quickly in 2015, no one was talking for us. We had $376 million worth of loss. $376 million, and no one, not a peak, was in our government understood, hey, insurance is not gonna save the farmers. They didn't understand the insurance program on ag it doesn't work like house or cards, it's not gonna pay full value, it's only paying a portion, and we needed help. So I uh convinced the General Assembly, farm a fund. Um, we got $40 million back to the farmers.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

That's fantastic. Um I re I read that about you, and that is uh an amazing thing. You even got uh to to for the legislator to override Nikki Haley's veto, which is amazing. Um I also wanted to ask you this question because uh and being that we just have a few minutes left here, I want to make sure we talk about foreign ownership of farmland that people concern affordability of food prices and what's going on right now, the fuel cost, and fertile. People don't really realize the cost of farming on fertilizer and the three-to-forms and how to find it. Um and so also, you know, um how food security is national security, also illegal immigrants working in the industry. Um tell us maybe you can touch upon one or all.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

All right. So we'll be quick. Obviously, food security is national security. If you I mean you can go back even to ancient times, the way that that other nations would win is they would shut off access to food. So number one, we have to still happen our food. Oh well, okay. Well there you go. So we still we have to be able to protect our food source. That's number one. And what better way to protect our food source in South Carolina than to make it SC grown? To promote within, to promote local small farms to family farms. Well that is not the establishment system, and that's what I'm fighting against. Because the established system is corporate, is importing food out of state, out of out of the country, in bulk, cheap prices, but it's you know, you give up some on safety and security for price. Now, I support locally grown. I am a local farmer. Now that there's so what we what I want to do is is have those markets in state and tie the consumer back to the local farm where they can get the freshest, healthiest, safest food around. But everything is built on this system and everything is tied back to oil. So when we when we go to war or we're at war or whatever, and the oil prices go up, well everything is either shipped in or shipped out with fuel, and fuel is obviously made from oil. So and also you got fertilizer. Now fertilizer primarily is imported here from places like Ukraine or from Canada. So you you see tariffs impacting it, you see the war impacting it. So when it when the oil goes up, then fertilizer goes up because the costs go up. And some of it's some of it's speculative, and they it goes up just like we complained about the gas pump. They went up because they wanted to go up. But we've seen fertilizer prices more than double this year.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Because of tariffs and war. And farmers, 75% of farmers could not in South Carolina could not afford it, maybe a U.S. number actually, that stat could not afford enough fertilizer for all their crops this year. You know, we're talking about we went from $300 some dollars a ton, four hundred some dollars a ton. There are some prices out there last week that was pushing a thousand dollars a ton of fertilizer. Um that's not sustainable. There's no way to grow a crop, no way to feed your people at prices like that. Because the people couldn't afford to buy it for what it costs to grow it. Um, so we're gonna have to come back to local wood. I heard you earlier talking and I was like, she's speaking my language. I didn't know if that Liz that you knew had already read about me because you were speaking, you wanted an outsider, telling who's gonna fight, and that's me. I I'm primarily self-funded. So I I don't have no there's not a single um max donor on my card. But I do have donors and I do have people who support me throughout the state or speak for me. I am the grassroots candidate because they know what I've done through the PharmA Fund. But also I went to Canada on my dime, something the commissioner should be doing, and brought back an international contract to cucumbers. That that was back in 17, and that contract today is it went from 150 acres in in 18 to nearly 3,000 acres this year, and it's generating five million dollars of revenue for Sar Carolina farmers. But I'm running because I've done the role. I've spoken to the General Assembly, I've testified before Senator Tim Scott's congressional hearing, and I've also brought back foreign industry to our state. There's not another candidate on that ballot that can say that.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

And some of them have worked in the government and they can't say it. So I'm the outsider, but I'm I am the right choice for Commissioner of Agriculture for our state.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Uh we're speaking with Jeremy Cannon. He is the first name on the list on the ballot for Republican uh Commission of Agriculture race. I wanted to ask you about glyphosate. Um what can you tell us about that food safety uh concerns? Um, we hear a lot of bad things about that, Roundup Ready Foods and all that. What is your position on that? And will you have any impact on the use of that um and and you know, and the dangers of or if there is I mean I mean we were told that it's very dangerous, it's you know, science and and biology. So tell us a little bit about uh your position on that.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Well, there's there's a few things. One of them would be the system has created a the establishment system, this corporate um economies of scale system. You've got to grow a bunch of acres because the margins are so tight, at least on the row crop side, which is where you see 99% of your GMO crops is on the row crop side. It's not on the fruits and vegetable side. There's very little, if any, that is glyphosate tolerant that you can spray glyphosate over top of them that it won't kill. So that's that should provide a little bit of relief to consumers. We're not spraying squash, zucchini, watermelons, etc., with glyphosate or roundup, whatever you want to call it. Obviously, glyphosate is the active ingredient. But on your corn and soybeans and wheat, the row crops you, you know, the margins are so tight you had to grow a bunch of acres and this, and that's the way the system is. That's that's this the established system. I want to get away from that. I want to come back to local. You know, the least acres you can grow, the better you can manage, the less we are reliant on glyphosate. Um, so but it's gonna change, it's gonna take a change in the thought process for the consumer. We have to get back to buying local, you know, to get out of the state. How can how do we do this?

SPEAKER_03 12:51

Tell us how to do this. How how can we support farmers?

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Well, buy local. You know, it is there are you'd be amazed at the number of farms there are growing one acre, five acre plots of produce, and we drive past them to go to Walmart or grocery store, neither one of them is supporting local, or we get it shipped in from Amazon or whatever. So, but you know, research, and that's one thing that we have not done a good enough job with SEDA is promoting the local farms, giving getting better advertising, getting better marketing, letting the consumers know, hey, you just passed by six farms. You may not have seen them, but you passed by six on your way to the grocery store, on your way to Walmart. So, you know, really building on that website, building on the name SC Grown that was started, you know, nearly 20 years ago, but has not done a good job of getting that to information to the consumer and saying this is what's um in season right now that you can find locally. You can find it cheaper, you can find it fresher and healthier, but you passed by it because you didn't know. So that's where we're going to work on the phone.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

Jeremy Cannon, I have one more question for you. I saw Trump in Wisconsin and there were farmers around him. They were phrasing the big beautiful bill. Um has that gone far enough to help farmers? And also I know that you have um farming of cattle also in your repertoire. I was just wondering if uh there was someone talking if uh the guy goes on if he's an NFL um player who is a health familiar and he has a farm and he has cattle, and he was saying there's not enough local packing plants that help cattle farmers. So can you give us a a a roundup on that? No pun intended.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Uh yes. Uh well, there's not enough. We actually do grow Angus beef, and like I said, and they're they're not doing enough. You know, and how long does it take for that money to be seen on the local level? You know, it used to be it was a lot faster. Now we're in a in a digital age and it takes a lot longer for the money to get here. So I don't I mean that's a side note. But we're not doing enough. There's only three USDA inspection sites for cattle in our state. Right now we're we grow Angus beef and we feed it um and we sell it at our market, but it has to be USDA inspected. That's what we choose to do, so we can sell it anywhere in the nation. There's three in s in the state, and the lead time to get a kill date is nearly four months. So that's that's because of those facilities, well the one that's local local to us can only kill about four hundred and fifty a year. Um but the red tape, it is just terrible. I mean it's what is it?

SPEAKER_03 15:52

Can you do something about that as a commissioner of agriculture?

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Sure. We're gonna get rid of some of these things that um are I'm not against the food safety part, but the inspection and the system and the cost, the fees and everything incurred just to get inspected and get approved is just ridiculous. There's a guy in Sumter, Sacqualine, he's twenty-five m miles west of here, but it has taken him a million dollars and nearly two years to get online to be a a kill facility. Why is that process? Why is it taking so long? It's like you're against the local farmer. You know, so right now we do not have the ability to kill enough, you know, cows or pork in our state to supply our growth stores. So that's one reason it's not in the stores, but there's a demand. There's consumers want local, they want, they want this stuff. So why are we not supporting it? We're gonna have to do more, and we're going to do more through a grant system and removing some of that red tape when I'm Commissioner of Agriculture.

SPEAKER_03 17:01

Well, uh Jeremy Cannon, thank you for sharing all of your platform and having this discussion, giving us an education on it as well as someone uh to vote for. Commissioner of Agriculture, GOP candidate Jeremy Cannon. Uh the election is tomorrow. Good luck to you.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Thank you, Liz. I would love to then check out CannonForAg.com for more information.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

Thank you so much.