MONTGOMERY, Ala. – As food prices rise nationwide and Americans’ confidence in food safety hits a record low, Democrat Ron Sparks and Republican Corey Hill are battling it out to become Alabama’s next commissioner of agriculture and industries.
The ag commissioner, a statewide constitutional officer, is responsible for regulating Alabama farms as well as weights and measures, gas pumps, convenience stores and the pesticide industry. The role oversees 300 full-time employees who carry out regulation and enforcement. As of the end of 2025, Alabama had 8.6 million acres of farmland and 37,000 farms, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Current Ag Commissioner Rick Pate is term-limited and ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor.
Though there’s no incumbent in the race, Sparks is no stranger to the role, having served the state as ag commissioner from 2003 to 2011 and as assistant commissioner before that.
Sparks said he stepped up to run again because he believes the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries is not managed effectively and lacks the enforcement capacity it had during his tenure. He said that his experience from both the Alabama role and his time as the president of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture has prepared him to walk back in and hit the ground running.
“You come to a point in time you think you’re retired, but when you see what’s going on, you just don’t want to sit on the sideline any longer,” Sparks said. “I think the people of Alabama know me, they know the job that we did when we were there. I was elected when Gov. Riley was elected as a Republican. I was elected as a Democrat. I’ve always reached across party lines. I’ve never made a decision based on whether I was a Democrat or Republican, so I feel like I’m the most qualified to handle the job.”
Sparks was unopposed in the Democratic primary, while Hill beat out two Republican opponents between the primary and runoff.
The mayor of Douglas and a farmer, Hill said he’s running because he understands firsthand what Alabama’s thousands of farmers go through on a daily basis.
“Alabama has not had a production ag farmer as ag commissioner since the late ’80s. Our farmers are struggling so much, and we need to help them all that we can,” Hill said. “We have an opportunity to send a farmer to the ag department to run that department and help farmers. I am a full-time production ag farmer. We grow the food that you eat, and I decided to run to help farmers primarily and to help keep our food safe as consumers.”
How candidates would support farmers
Both candidates have said repeatedly that they want to support Alabama’s tens of thousands of farmers, but their specific policy ideas differ.
Sparks said his top priority if elected would be to initiate a cost-sharing program to ease the financial burden farmers face when purchasing equipment. After putting some of their own money in, farmers would be able to receive a grant of state money for equipment, Sparks said.
Funding for this program, which he imagines to be similar to one implemented by the state of Tennessee, would come from lottery revenue, Sparks said. Though Alabama does not currently operate a state lottery, lawmakers and politicos from both sides of the aisle have predicted that gambling and lottery legislation will be a defining issue of the 2027 legislative session, which begins on Feb. 2, 2027.
“When they start talking about gambling in Alabama and they start talking about the lottery, you’re talking about $600 or $700 million,” Sparks said. “I’m only asking for $20 million to help our farmers across Alabama. When we did the tobacco tax settlement back in the ’90s, agriculture didn’t get a penny of that, so I want our farmers to have a fair shake when it comes to talking about where gambling money or lottery money is going to go.”
He said the state “can’t do enough to help farmers,” including increasing supports in the General Fund budget. Sparks also wants to remove the state’s 1.5% sales tax on farm equipment.
“That would put $40 million a year in the pockets of farmers,” Sparks said. “When I was the commissioner, we had 45,000 farms. Today we got 35,000 farms. We’re losing farms in Alabama, and we need to do everything we can to keep from losing these farms.”
Hill said his understanding of the everyday life of a production farmer, from struggles with high input costs and a changing landscape of consumer behavior, informs how he would go about the role if elected. He said encouraging Alabamians to eat food grown in the state via the Sweet Grown Alabama program would be a top priority.
“Anything that we can grow in Alabama, I’ll promote,” Hill said. “I’m going to be the biggest Alabama promoter the ag department’s ever seen on the Alabama-produced stuff.”
He also said he would quickly push legislation to make it easier for Alabama’s schools to purchase food grown in Alabama, a permanent extension of the farm-to-school program Sparks kickstarted in Alabama. Hill said he’d like to establish the program as a permanent line item in the Legislature’s budget.
“There’s a little bit of Conecuh sausage in school lunchrooms, but I’d like to put that in every lunchroom that wants it, and even expand that to protein, such as chicken and beef, on Alabama children’s plates…” Hill said. “Right now, it’s not easy to do, and if we’re going to use our taxpayer dollars to buy food to feed our children, we don’t need to be sending that money out of state. We need to be buying Alabama products every time that that is available.”
The state Legislature has allocated $2.195 million to the program since October 2020, according to the governor’s office.
Food safety
After recent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, food safety is a top-of-mind priority for many voters.
The lowest recorded level ever, only 65% of Americans are very or somewhat confident that food sold at most grocery stores is safe to eat, according to a Gallup poll released last week.
Echoing a message pushed by ADAI during this summer’s cyclosporiasis outbreak, Hill said buying local food can be a way to restore trust in the food supply. He also said he would start an awareness campaign centered on educating consumers about how to properly wash and cook food.
“The big thing we’ve got to do is we can push our consumers to buy local Alabama products where it’s handled less frequently and it’s transported shorter distances,” Hill said. “The chance of it being safer is greater because of that. A big focus of our administration is going to be promoting the Alabama farmer, buying local.”
Sparks said food safety boils down to a strong enforcement arm, which he said the department currently lacks. Under his leadership, the department, which he called Alabama’s consumer protection agency, would make it a priority to take more fruit and vegetable samples.
“It’s my responsibility to make sure that the food you eat is safe, and I take that very serious,” Sparks said. “You see all these recalls today, but when you’ve downsized the department the way they downsized the department and got rid of inspectors the way they’ve got rid of inspectors, I don’t see how in the world you can handle the responsibility that you’re supposed to be able to do with the amount of people that they’ve got rid of.”
Sparks also mentioned that he opened three new animal diagnostics labs during his time in office and said he’s proven he knows how to lead the department.
Imported beef
In August, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation allowing the country to expand its import of 300,000 metric tons of beef because the American-grown supply was “inadequate to meet domestic demand at reasonable prices.”
When asked if they support the president’s move, Sparks and Hill had the same answer: “absolutely not.”
Hill, who is currently hosting an “Eat Bama Beef” tour to promote Alabama cattle during campaign stops across the state, said that the ag commissioner needs to get consumers more comfortable buying Alabama-grown products.
“We grow the best beef, the best protein in Alabama and this country,” Hill said. “There’s so many people, Alabama farmers, that are selling off the farm their own freezer beef. We’ve just got to educate the consumer where those locations are and get them to buy more beef and in that way, it wouldn’t be an issue to our consumers if the beef was imported or not.”
Sparks said that he opposes the decision because foreign countries have different standards on chemicals and antibiotics allowed in beef.
“I don’t want foreign countries sending their products into Alabama, absolutely not, especially with an uneven playing field,” Sparks said. “So I’m going to protect my farmers, and I’m going to make sure the food supply that comes into Alabama is safe. I’ve stopped foreign food from coming into Alabama before, and I can stop it again.”
Campaign finance
Heading into the final weeks of the campaign, Hill has a war chest nearly double the size of Sparks’. Hill had $195,000 on hand, while Sparks had $101,000, as of Friday afternoon.
Hill’s spending and fundraising also trump Sparks’, but he competed in a contested primary and runoff, while Sparks did not. Hill has raised $711,000 and spent $556,000 over the course of the race. Sparks has raised $213,000 and spent $117,000.
The general election is Nov. 3. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 19.