Steve Troxler

Steve Troxler has been the state’s Agriculture Commissioner since 2005. He is also a farmer who grows livestock and vegetables and was once a tobacco farmer.

The job

The agriculture commissioner’s responsibilities include promoting the state’s agriculture sector and enforcing regulations that protect North Carolinians’ health, safety, and welfare.

Our Q&A with Troxler

NC Health News reached out to Steve Troxler’s campaign multiple times looking for answers to our list of questions and received no response. To give readers information, we combed the internet and social media for statements by Steve Troxler and material from Troxler’s official website that could address the themes in our questions. Unfortunately, we were not able to find material to answer every question.

We’re amid what NOAA predicts will be an above-average Atlantic Hurricane Season. Given that there are CAFOS in eastern North Carolina in the floodplain, what should be done about the risks of flooding and contamination of nearby waterways? What’s your position on vegetative buffer zones near waterways?

This following information was reported by The Daily Tar Heel on October 1, 2020.

Troxler said as commissioner of agriculture, he’s helped lead the state through natural disasters.

“Every time that there has been any type of disaster in North Carolina, the Department of Agriculture and I have been there before, during and after the disasters to help people get through it and get back on their feet,” Troxler said in a Sept. 8 interview with UNC-TV.

In an Axios Charlotte article published October 27, 2020, Troxler offered the following response to a question about climate change.

Troxler: The incumbent notes that he’s especially proud that the state has preserved more than 20,000 acres of farm and forest land through the Farmland Preservation Fund during his time as commissioner. “This not only sequesters carbon but also helps mitigate heat islands,” he says.

The state also conducts agriculture research in conjunction with North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T to help mitigate weather-related issues.

In a 2022 article by Inside Climate News, Troxler spoke against a proposal by the Security and Exchange Commission that would, in part, require large companies to disclose the impacts of climate change on their business. The following excerpt includes a comment from Troxler.

“Farm interests, again, used the same message to push back against the rules, saying they would hurt small farmers. “Imposing additional reporting requirements around climate-related metrics would distract farms of all sizes from their focus on producing food, fiber and fuel,” wrote Steven Troxler, the commissioner of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, in comments submitted to the SEC.

During an interview on UNC-TV in 2020, Troxler commented on climate change.

“The climate has been changing since before recorded time. There’s evidence that the ocean was up to Raleigh at one point in time. We know we lost the dinosaurs and the big animals. So, yes, the climate is changing. For how long, which direction it goes, I don’t think anybody knows but we’ve got to deal with it. We farm outside.”

In June (2024) Troxler spoke with Mike Davis, host of the Southern Farm Network radio show, about NOAA’s prediction of an above-average hurricane season and what farmers/state agencies can do to reduce potential flooding.

Here’s an excerpt from the show.

“There are flood prevention measures that we’re talking about, and one of the major ones is storing water,” Troxler said. He added that one goal is to “divert water ahead of time before the rain starts [by] lowering the levels of rivers and streams to help them take on water without flooding. That’s a major area of consideration.”

“If we were to put more flood storage — we call it freeboard — in a pond […] by raising the dam level some and raising the level of the emergency spillway, when you add that up, that comes up to an enormous amount of flood storage.”

He continued, “We’re going to work with NC State and DEQ to do these pilot programs […] If it works like we think it will, then we’d like to spread this across the whole state and be able to control floodwater.”

In a September 2023 article about the Supreme Court’s decision to narrow the definition of Waters of The United States ruling (Sackett v. EPA), a decision that could potentially strip many wetland areas of federal protections, Troxler offered his thoughts.

“This ruling favors farmers and is welcome news to the agriculture community,” Troxler said.

But Kelly Moser, a Southern Environmental Law Center senior attorney, said the ruling means wetlands like Carolina bays and pocosins would no longer be protected. “It requires the state definition of wetlands to match the federal definition, which would obviously harm North Carolina’s ability to preserve the flood resilience benefits of our wetlands for downstream communities,” Moser said.

We’ve seen high path avian flu be devastating in other states and now it’s appearing in cattle herds. What steps should NC be taking to manage the risk posed by this pathogen?

The following is an excerpt from an August 2024 article from the Carolina Journal regarding precautions the state is taking to limit a Bird Flu outbreak.

Commissioner Troxler told the Carolina Journal that there is a concern for a continued outbreak of cases as fall comes and the birds begin to migrate.

“As long as this is endemic in the wild bird population, there’s always that problem, and we have seen things that show that the wild birds are spreading this,” said Commissioner Troxler. “So, biosecurity, especially on our farms, is very, very important. Commingling of any of our livestock on farms with wild birds as a motor, and we’ve worked with people that have backyard flocks of chickens to make them understand that they need to have a way to keep wild birds from comingling, whether it’s water or feed or whatever. That’s very important.”

North Carolina activists continue to call for stronger regulations for concentrated animal feeding operations to protect public health and the environment.

Even as high path AI is a threat, the state knows little about large poultry operations. What kinds of oversight would you propose for monitoring this industry?

NC Health News could not find anything in the public record on this topic.

There’s growing concern that several hog farms in eastern N.C. have lagoons nearing total capacity. Advocates of methane capture promote it as a solution to the hog waste problem, while critics say establishing methane capture programs on hog farms will only increase waste output. Where do you stand on this issue? What ideas do you have for addressing the hog waste problem?

The following excerpt was reported in a 2018 News and Observer article

Troxler was among several Republicans to speak at a rally on July 10 in Duplin County, in rural Eastern North Carolina. They attended the event to denounce a court ruling against Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer and a partner of many N.C. hog farmers.

A jury recently awarded $25 million to an Eastern North Carolina couple after they complained that a Smithfield farm caused swarms of flies, bad smells and other nuisances on their property. Troxler called the ruling “un-American” and “a travesty of justice.” And he expressed doubt about the extent of damage that hog farms cause.

“The Black River starts in Sampson County, runs through Duplin County right through hog country. And the water quality in that river is rated at the very top in North Carolina,” Troxler said.

What should NC’s farm community and agricultural regulators be doing to prepare for the threat posed by climate change, especially those from low-wealth Black and brown communities, who are more likely to live near a CAFO?