Joshua Higginbotham: Candidate for West Virginia commissioner of agriculture

Biography:

“The first job I had was working on the Higginbotham cattle farm from age 10 through high school, and it taught me a lot about hard work. Since then, I spent five years in the West Virginia Legislature as chairman of the Economic Development Committee, where we helped bring tens of millions of dollars in rural investment to our state. I plan to raise my own family one day on the same Higginbotham farm I grew up on in the Kanawha Valley.”

What do you think is currently the most important issue facing WV farmers and how would you address it if elected?:

“One of our biggest challenges as a state and country is taking on a global market. My goal as your Republican agriculture commissioner will be to ban woke corporations with ties to Communist China from owning farmland in our state. The last few years have taught us that our food sources and supply chains are incredibly vulnerable to emergencies, natural disasters and acts of war. Frankly, this is a national security issue I plan to tackle. We must bring manufacturing and distribution hubs back to West Virginia.”

What needs to be done to help educate young West Virginians about the opportunities available to them to pursue agricultural careers?:

“It’s great that we have so many kids involved in FFA and 4H now, but very few of these kids actually go into the field after graduation. We have to teach entrepreneurship, business and personal finance to kids so they can understand how to run a profitable farm. I’ve met so many young people who are eager to get involved, but when they see how much it costs up front for land, equipment and the overhead costs of following government regulations, a lot of them get discouraged and leave the industry before truly starting.”