Election 2020: The Race For W.Va. Commissioner Of Agriculture

On this West Virginia Morning, we hear a young boy interview his mom. Also, in this show, we continue our election coverage with a look at the race for West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture.

Name some foods that are grown in West Virginia. Maybe apples or peaches come to mind. These are some of the state’s top crops. At the top of the list though is hay. While our state doesn’t produce nearly as much food as Ohio or Virginia, which have a great deal more flat land, there are over 22,000 farms in West Virginia. The state has the nation’s highest rate of farms owned by families, and the majority of farms are considered small. There are two men running for the position which ultimately gets to direct the future of farming in West Virginia – current Commissioner of Agriculture Kent Leonhardt, a Republican, and state Sen. Bob Beach, a Democrat.

This weekend’s episode of Inside Appalachia started with a conversation between nine-year-old Zion Bullock and his mother Ronda Taylor Bullock. They sat down together to record a conversation about racism. Ronda is the co-founder of “We Are,” a Durham North Carolina-based non-profit committed to anti-racist education. She focuses on teaching children of all skin colors how to talk about racism. Ronda and Zion recorded this conversation in their backyard. Their conversation was produced by WUNC’s Liz Schlemmer.

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