With the unofficial election results in, Ag Commissioner Rick Pate is set for another term in office. Pate overwhelmingly won out against Libertarian candidate Jason Clark.

“When you start talking about protecting food safety and animal health in the state, you’re not going to separate out Republicans and Democrats or Libertarians,” Rick Pate told The News Courier. “This is a very non-partisan political job, you know. We don’t take really controversial stances.”

After growing up working on his family’s cattle and poultry operations in Lowndes County, he began studying at Auburn University in its College of Agriculture where he earned his degree in Horticulture in 1978.

In 1982, he took what he had learned growing up in agriculture and during his time at Auburn and he opened Pate Landscape Co, Inc.

His work in his business serves as a guiding light to his work as Alabama’s Ag Commissioner by focusing on building connections and relationships in the agricultural community and maintaining a commitment to quality service.

Since the death of his father in 2012, he has ran his family’s cattle operation, Pate Charolais Ranch.

Pate’s political career began in 1996 serving on Lowndesboro’s town council. Later on in 2004, he became the mayor of Lowndesboro.

He served as the mayor until 2018 when he resigned after winning the run-off election for Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries, where he continues to serve today.

During Pate’s first term, the agricultural branding program dubbed “Sweet Grown Alabama” launched a searchable database and website.

The program allows consumers to identify what is local, versus what may have spent weeks in shipment prior to arriving to our grocery stores.

“It’s been pretty successful,” Pate said. “By branding as a ‘Sweet Grown Alabama’ product you can be assured that it was locally grown.”

This program will continue giving consumers a way to ensure the products they buy are locally produced, rather than imported.

Pate’s administration will continue incentivizing nutritionists to put locally grown food on the plates of students.

“We got the legislature to give us about $300,000 this year and we’re actually using that money to incentivize our nutritionists to put local Alabama products on kids plates, and so we actually reimburse them 20 cents every time,” Pate explained.

“We’ve seen a lot of growth in that program [farm to school],” Pate said.

For more information about the programs and initiatives offered by the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, visit https://agi.alabama.gov/.