The Watchdog Report

By Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom

 

As springtime is arriving in South Carolina, I am reminded of the tremendous goodness of our proud state. I think of garden-fresh corn, rich dairy products, sweet strawberries, beautiful plants and flowers, and the smell of fresh-cut hay. What we sometimes overlook are the people who make those things possible – our family farmers.

 

South Carolina has changed a great deal in a relatively short period of time.  Just 100 years ago, farming was a major way of life in our state.  There was a time when South Carolina farmers raised a wide variety of crops and a time when they raised a lot of families – in a state that was mostly rural. 

 

The landscape of farming has dramatically changed as people have sought easier ways to make a living. Cities and towns are sprawling and farms are shrinking. In addition, government regulators have driven many family farms out of business.  Yet South Carolina’s agricultural sector remains strong.  Its contribution to our state economy has helped to support rural communities, create jobs, and develop a strong work ethic in the young people who work the land beside their hard working parents. The benefits provided by our family farmers are great. Family farmers make a positive and lasting contribution to the environment, to wildlife, and to all of us who enjoy the fruits of their labors.

 

From Abbeville to Afghanistan, our farmers are feeding the world the highest quality of fresh and safe food at the lowest prices on the planet. We need to thank family farmers for their efficiency, for protecting the land they farm, and for contributing the sweat of their brow and the fruits of their labor to feed, clothe, and shelter the rest of us.

 

This spring, as you enjoy farm-fresh fruits and vegetables in your comfortable home, as you smell the aroma of meat cooking on the grill, as you marvel at the wide open spaces and greenery of the countryside, and as you spend relatively less on food than consumers in nearly every other country in the world, take time to thank God for our family farmers and all they contribute to make South Carolina one of the greatest places in the world to call home.  And above all, don’t ever complain about farmers with food in your mouth!