"I come from a full-time farming family. We don't farm as a hobby or for nostalgia's sake. We do it for a living. Since 1944, my family has raised truck crops and livestock in Jones and Perry counties. My grandfather (Everett L. Cole, Sr.), my father (Robert L. Cole, Sr.), and I have raised and sold fresh fruit and vegetables all around Mississippi and surrounding states. We have been wholesalers and retailers, and we have produced and sold to customers large and small, as far away as Chicago and as close as our own front yard. If you have eaten fresh turnips, mustard or collard greens in South Mississippi or New Orleans over the last seventy five years, chances are pretty good that you ate some of ours. My strong father and loving mother are still active at the farm where they have been together over 60 years, and I still seek their wisdom daily. Growing and selling is part of my DNA, and I want to put that lifetime of experience to work for all Mississippians.
My wife Ayana is a New Orleans girl, but her mother is from the Midway community in Scott County. I was born at Laurel, the first generation of my family to be born in a hospital. I am a proud son of the Free State of Jones. We are blessed with two wonderful children who are both good farmers, too. Katherine (age 13) has a green thumb and loves to sell her Aloe Vera plants at farmers markets, and Jackson Robert (age 9) specializes as a Rhode Island Red chicken grower. Ayana and the children are the campaign staff for our campaign, and it is a real joy to have them on the trail with me as we travel Mississippi as a family.
I am a Christian, a family man, an American and a Mississippian, in that order of priority. I serve as an usher and our son Jackson Robert serves as an acolyte at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Jackson. Ayana and I were married at St. Mark's United Methodist Church in New Orleans. I was baptized at Ellisville United Methodist Church. My ancestral home church is Mt. Olive United Methodist Church, about a mile from our farm. I am saved by God's grace though Jesus. When I decided to run for this office, my big brother gave me this verse that is my constant prayer: "so give your servant a discerning heart" (1 Kings 3:9).
My life-long avocation has been volunteer activism. I have worked to organize political campaigns and committees for over thirty years all across Mississippi, almost always as a volunteer. I am so proud and grateful for the countless friendships earned throughout those years with my fellow Mississippians of every description. I love Mississippi and all her people. I want to serve every Mississippian, regardless of their politics or their bank accounts."
Why are you running for Commissioner of Agriculture?
"I offer to serve as Agriculture Commissioner for all the people of Mississippi, regardless of political philosophy, religion, race, occupation, station in life, or their bank balance. This is a job that belongs to all the people, not just the big wheels at the top of certain interests.
My opponent says that he will "keep on doing what we have been doing." I assure you that I will not. Mississippi deserves better that what we have been doing. The people of Mississippi deserve safe food, yet we bring in 90% of what we eat in Mississippi from other places, including many foreign countries where their primitive food standards are far below ours. How can we make our food safer: by producing and buying more Mississippi grown food. We send nearly $6 billion dollars out of our state every year to buy food that is grown and processed outside of Mississippi. Why is that, when we have the richest land, the hardworking people, the abundant water, and the long growing seasons to produce much of what we eat right here close to home? Because we have never had leadership in this office who made it their number one priority to connect Mississippi growers with Mississippi consumers. Keeping just 1/6th of that money in Mississippi would create 13,000 jobs.
Elect me your Agriculture Commissioner and I will make local food my top priority for the next four years. It is shameful that food deserts exist in a land of plenty like Mississippi. We must return to our roots of food independence, and we do that by making it possible for neighbors to feed their neighbors again. Bureaucratic red tape hinders the local food movement in Mississippi. The Mississippi Legislature (where my opponent served for many years) has done little to nothing to help ambitious growers expand local markets. That has to change, if we are to make food safe, local, and abundant in Mississippi again.
I like to say I am really running for Commissioner of Food, because it is at the dinner plate that this office affects every Mississippian directly. The bureaucratic bottleneck that keeps Mississippi food from reaching Mississippi dining tables is in this office, and as long as we put status quo establishment legislator/lawyer/politicians in this office so they can use it for a stepping stone for some higher office, we will continue to see foreign food dominate Mississippi's food supply.
So, if you want a leader who will "keep on doing what we've been doing", then I am not your man. If you want a leader who will cater to the special interests, then support the other fellow. If you think this job is just a stepping stone to higher office, then skip my name.
But if you want an independent man, appointed by nobody and beholden to nobody to get in there, shake things up, and get more Mississippi Food onto Mississippi Tables, then Vote for Rickey L. Cole for Commissioner of Agriculture on Tuesday, November 5th."
