Louisiana's rich culture and history are rooted in great part in our agricultural traditions.  Even in the age of the microchip, agriculture remains a $10 billion industry that employs thousands of Louisianaians and affects what all of us pay for food at the grocery store.

 

But Louisiana's agriculture industry is in trouble.  From rice to dairy to sugar, more and more farmers are having trouble staying competitive in a global marketplace.

 

Which is why this election for commissioner of agriculture is of great importance to all Louisianaians.

 

The agriculture department is badly in need of change.  The department in recent years has run amok, particularly as it embarked on an ill-conceived and wasteful building campaign.  Taxpayers are now carrying a $56 million debt risk for a syrup mill that's not meeting production projections.  Yet the department sought to build a separate $135 million mill last year until public pressure helped kill the project.

 

Louisiana needs a new agriculture commissioner with the vision and the expertise to refocus the department on its core mission of promoting and improving agriculture.  We believe the best candidate to come in and turn the ship around is Mike Strain.

 

Mr. Strain, who is leaving a state representative seat, is a Covington veterinarian, and his family has long run a dairy business.  He has represented rural interests well in the Legislature, and he has a well-conceived vision of what the agriculture department needs to do and a strategy to get it done.  He also understands the department's relevance to urban areas, where it regulates cash registers, gasoline pumps and warehouses.

 

He pledges to thoroughly review the department to make it more efficient and less wasteful.  He also wants to create synergy between farmers, scientists and the state to come up with region- and commodity-specific plans to improve production and open new markets.

 

Mr. Strain vows to abandon the department's ill-conceived building campaign.  Instead, he wants to use state resources as leverage to promote private investment.

 

Thousands of families who make a living off the land deserve an efficient and effective agriculture department, and Mr. Strain is the best candidate to deliver it.