The fact is South Carolina family farmers are members of our community. They care about what happens to the environment, perhaps more than most of us. After all, they depend on the water and the land providing the bounty that sustains them. To that end, SC farmers are at the fore front of emerging practices to protect the environment.

An increasing number of farmers and ranchers are working to make their operations more recyclable and self-sustaining. This means doing more to reuse materials on the farm, minimize waste and reduce the need to bring in energy from outside sources.

Many farms today are capturing and reusing the water they need to raise animals and grow crops. They’re creating closed-loop systems by using animal manure as fertilizer on crops. On some farms this is a self-contained cycle, while on others it represents an arrangement between crop farmers and animal ranchers.

Efficiently managing resources, harnessing natural processes, and reducing waste have always been part of what successful farmers and ranchers do. Moving forward, they will continue to find ways to reuse and recycle as much as possible and invest it right back into farms.

Despite all of that, special interest groups are claiming that family farmers should be held up by political fighting and law suits. For example, during a drought a farmer might be forced to stop irrigating his crops to have public hearings, file requests and fight in court. All the while – the farmers crops will die.

That affects all of us.

Please don’t let that happen. Sign our petition today and tell legislators to stand with family farmers.