Candidate moves ag into foreground

For the first time in the 41 years, the state of Georgia will have a new commissioner of Agriculture next year. Republican Gary Black thinks he’s the perfect man for the job.

Black, a former Georgia Agribusiness Council president and co-manager of the Georgia Food Industry Partnership, is seeking to replace retiring Commissioner Tommy Irvin, who is stepping down after holding the office since 1969. Irvin, a Democrat, is the longest-serving state constitutional officer in Georgia.

Black, who was campaiging in Albany Thursday, will be opposed by Democrat J.D. Powell and Libertarian Kevin Cherry in November’s general election.

Black says one of the biggest challenges is educating the general public on the functions of the Department of Agriculture.

“I was at a parade in Alpharetta recently and I asked a woman for her support,” Black recalled. “She said she would vote for me, but she wasn’t from here. I asked where she was from and she said ‘Winder.’

“I had to tell her the commissioner of agriculture is a statewide position.”

Black said he was not surprised by the woman’s confusion.

“I’ve really been having to educate people all over the state,” Black said. “But I was ready for it because I had to do the same thing four years ago.” Black ran against Irvin in 2006, but lost. Irvin carried 56 percent of the vote to Black’s 40.6 percent and 3.4 percent for Libertarian Jack Cashin.

Black said his biggest immediate challenge as commissioner would be gaining the trust of the department’s staffers and employees.

“It will be a task for them to learn to trust me and me to learn to trust them. Things have been pretty steady for the past 40 years.” Black said.

Then there is the matter of gaining the public’s trust.

“The public wants to trust us and everything rises and falls on leadership,” Black said. “I’m the only man in the race that has the experience to do the job.”

But the first thing he will do as commissioner — he quipped that he might even send a tweet announcement out on his Blackberry before he sits down after taking the oath — would be to launch a strategic planning process with a 36-member steering committee tasked with determining the department’s needs for the future.

Black also said he wants to make the department more open to public. Every function of the department, he said, falls into one of 20 disciplines. As commissioner, he would establish a five-member, voluntary advisory board for each of those 20 areas.

Each panel would consist of three stakeholders in the discipline, one member with institutional knowledge, such as a university official, and the one who is “a good old-fashioned taxpayer.”

Black says his experience with the state’s various commodity commissions is a plus in his favor.

“I’ve worked for 29 years with the commodity commissions,” he said. “They are governed by state law, and where and how those laws have been applied have caused friction.

“I want to give the commissions more independence. The state should audit the commissions, but not be an arbiter.”

Black said he also wants to link the ag commission’s marketing with the state’s overall economic development strategy.

“Georgia agriculture should be a component of each mission that visits elsewhere to sell the state,” Black said. “I think each mission should include a separate team to sell Georgia agriculture.

“I want to use the power of the governor’s bully pulpit to take agriculture into the mainstream.”