Douglas mayor says his experience makes him the best candidate for Agriculture and Industries Commissioner
By DONNA THORNTON, Editor
Corey Hill believes he has experience that is needed in the office of the commissioner of agriculture and industries.
He’s seeking that office in his first statewide campaign. It’s not his first foray into politics; he’s currently serving as mayor of Douglas. He’s operating his family farm and owns and operates a grocery store, so he’s got agriculture and industries covered, as well as political experience.
“The ag commissioner needs to be a farmer — someone deeply rooted in agriculture,” Hill said. For Hill’s family, those agricultural roots are four generations deep in the Marshall County soil.
He said it is vital that commissioner have a long view of agriculture, given the challenges the industry faces now, with market issues, high input costs and low commodity prices. Farming has to be more profitable for farmers, Hill said, for it to be sustainable “so we can continue to eat food grown in this country.
“The biggest issue facing agriculture right now if the aging population of farmers and finding a way to get young people involved in farming,” he explained. “A lot of younger folks want to do it, but they can’t afford to get into it due to the high cost of land and equipment. Unless they have a family member or someone to mentor them. We’re trying to create some sort of mentorship to where folks can go work with an older farmer who does have kids coming along who want to farm.
“Maybe we can pair them up through the school system or some other avenue.”
Right now, the cost of diesel fuel is crazy, he said, and it’s planting season. Just costs in general are hitting farmers hard. Interest rates are always a factor.
Most big agricultural operations borrow money in the spring for seed and fertilizer to get their crops in the ground, Hill said, and the current higher interest rates make that a real line item that affects the bottom line.
Hill said his son is back from college now, bringing a fourth generation to work the family farm. “We have five breeder-pullet houses and we have about 120 ‘momma’ cows. We wean those calves and group them together and ship them off to sell in groups.
“My mom and dad’s house is on the same land my granddaddy grew sweet potatoes and sugar cane on when I was a kid,” Hill said. “We’ve kept that family land in the family. My mom still lives there.”
What Hill grows now is different – poultry and cattle, rather than row crops – but his family continues to use the land to produce food.
“We don’t do any row crops. I just don’t have that much faith, to do that. I have a lot of friends that row crop. They are really struggling financially,” he said.
In Marshall County, poultry is huge. There’s not a lot of cotton anymore, he said, but there’s a lot of beans and corn grown here.
“We’re one of the top cattle producing counties in the state,” Hill said, ranking as one of the top two or three for cattle and second largest for poultry.
Statewide, agriculture is a $77 billion industry, and there are 22 million chickens harvested a week in Alabama, he said. Alabama is the number two catfish producing state. Half of the peanuts produced in the world are produced within 100 miles of Dothan, Alabama.
The ag industry is big, and it’s diversified. One- in-three jobs in Alabama are agriculture-related, Hill said.
“It just affects everybody. When agriculture doesn’t do well, everybody notices,” he said.
Many people are not aware of all that the Department of Agriculture and Industries does, Hill said. It is the third largest agency in the state, with 18 departments and more than 300 employees.
“It covers every aspect of your life,” he said. Duties include monitoring food safety, checking octane levels at gas pumps and the measures of grocery store scales and scales at package delivery service such as FedEx, regulating pest control company chemicals, and herbicides used by the guy who mows lawns.
The agency has labs around the state, Hill said, and employees who go to grocery stores and buy products to ensure the ingredients and weight are what the package says, that the products are not past expiration dates, and that the hamburger meat labeled 90% lean is not actually 70%.
“Whoever has this job needs to understand and have a background in this,” he said.
“I think I’m well-qualified because of my background in farming and the grocery store, and the regulations that I see for food safety and production,” he said. “We deal with all aspects of it.”
In addition to the farm, the store and city, Hill’s been dealing with the rigors of running a statewide campaign. That means most of his days are on the road.
“We try to stay home on Sunday and go to church and rest,” Hill said, “but most every other day there’s somewhere we need to be. We’ve traveled to all 67 counties – many of them multiple times.”
Hill said he started visiting some counties three years ago. In the campaign, he’s been fortunate to have the endorsement of the Alabama Farmers Federation and the Alabama Grocer’s Association, and the support of the Alabama Cattleman’s B-PAC.
He said he visited those folks early on to seek support, and now the campaign focuses mostly on going to Republican meetings around the state with different county chapters, and to other events where farmers or large groups are gathered, such as the Decatur Chamber of Commerce Banquet he attended recently.
“It’s not a political event,” he said, but it’s a chance for a candidate to get their name out there and be recognized. Polls show 60% to 70% off voters are undecided in some races, he said, which seems strange to him.
“I guess people think it’s so distant right now, that we’re not close enough to the election,” he speculated.
“But I think it’s time people start paying attention and learning and deciding who they’re going to support with these races less than two months away,” Hill said.
The primary is May 19, when Hill faces Christina Woerner McInnis and Jack Williams for the Republican nomination. The nominee will face Democrat Ron Sparks.
Douglas Mayor Corey Hill speaks during a meeting in the gymnasium at Douglas High School. Hill, who began a new term as mayor in the fall, will be on the Republican ballot for the position of commissioner of agriculture and industries in the May 19 primary. He faces two opponents. Photo by DONNA THORNTON l The Leader
