FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
State Rep. Jennifer Fidler - Jeff Poor Show - Monday 7-22-24
[music] Welcome back to "The Jumpboard Show" at F but Talk 10065. Thank you for staying with us on this Monday morning. Text slide 2513430010. States will be in touch with the program. Hit us up there. So, give us a program. Dale Jackson from WVNN and Gella Hammer News. It did in 11 o'clock hour. State Representative Alan Treadaway from Morris. But, it used to be the Deputy Police Chief at Berwick Ab. There's a request of some time on this program. So, we have obliged. And he will be with us in 11 o'clock hour. Please stay tuned for that. Joining us now, she is our Monday. Every other Monday, you're always a pleasure to bring on State Representative Jennifer Fiddler, my State Representative. Representative, good morning, how are you? I'm doing great, Jeff. How are you doing? Doing well, doing well. Thanks for making time for us. Thanks for coming by, as always. Well, I mean, it's been a crazy week for me. Politics, presidential politics. But, you know, you're looking around state level wide and kind of what's going on here locally. I guess that show goes on, doesn't it? Yeah, it's been interesting. Thank you to President Biden for getting out of the race. I just have to say that. This is chaos. I don't know. I am really underwhelmed by a lot of this. For the party that preached to us and I presented it about democracy for the last five years. This is what you call democracy, okay. But I digress. Well, let's go here. Last time you and I were talking, and I think this is an important issue and certainly in the news. But especially at Baldwin County, kind of interesting, the way things are going, the way the economy is changing here. I mean, you know, I grew up, Baldwin County, yeah, it was the beach, but before you got to the beach, it was just farmland, farmland, farmland. Robert Stell, farmland, farmland, farmland, farmland, summer, you know, and you go all the way down and, you know, you look at Easter shorts, sort of the same thing. That's changing in it and there's this sort of economic shift is we're becoming less agriculture oriented here, it seems, as people are kind of selling off their plots of land. Well, I mean, it is kind of economic. You have these large farm fields or that's, you don't have to take any trees or brush off. They're flat and ready to build upon the farmer, the ag development rights or the ag rights, excuse me, the agricultural rights are worth about seven or $8,000 an acre here. And the development rights are worth about, if you develop it, you sell it for development, they're worth $50,000 an acre. So when, you know, these farmers are trying to survive, and that's literally what your small farmers out there, most of them are trying to do is just, you know, survive. They, this a love of the land. They're stewards of this land. And they're, you know, getting going from season to season crop to crop and, you know, just hoping everything comes out. So it's, yes, an economic choice at the end of the day to develop or let a developer come in. I think, I think a lot of it though now, it's just that the economics, the economy, inflation, all the input cost, labor, you got on the list of all the things you need to be a farmer. Now you can just cash out, sell it off and know how many of those hassles anymore. I mean, that's sort of the way we're going here. Well, and the generation, all the children are seeing it. They've seen how hard their dad and moms have worked and how much it takes to get into it. And those, the kids, you know, those children would be the ones that kind of understand, you know, the whole farming technique and they, they would know, you know, what it takes to bring a crop in. It is so hard, difficult, hardly achievable for someone who didn't grow up in a farm family and doesn't have the land to get in and start farming. I mean, just because of the price of the land. And in Bowen County, think about how we can get another crop in our ag lands here in Bowen County. We're in zone nine, nine, eight, meaning for those folks out there that don't know a little bit about horticulture and growing. We can pretty much get another season in because, you know, the, we get a couple frost, we get several freezes a year, but you got, we've got some crops that'll get through that. And so we can grow through that. So we've got a, we're a little bit, we can grow a little bit more, several more things than our folks, our neighbors, our colleagues in North Alabama. I serve on the public safety and homeland security committee. And in my mind, you know, I think about from the ag side growing up on a farm, I think about that is our security. Our food is our security. And just is so important to have that source local not being so reliant on transportation means to get it here. I always think about a conversation I had with one of my friends that was in the trucking company and he told me he said, three days is what an 18 wheeler every three days that 18 wheeler that's filled with food replenishes the grocery shelves. So in three days, if they're not hitting that store, you're running out of food. And of course, we saw that just a couple of years ago with the empty shelves, the transportation issues, you know, the every three days that, you know, the 18 wheeler supply and milk, you know, food on the grocery store. And I think about the, you know, prime agricultural land that we have just gobbling up, you know, around here. And it does, it is a concern to me. It's easier to plant houses. It is an economic decision for these large landowners, these farmers, these farm families. You know, when they are when they get the land, you know, when they are inherited the land, they get to pay what their fathers or grandfather, you know, whenever that money change share that land changed hands. There was a value on it and just say it was $7,000 an acre. It could be $2,000 an acre. And today it's worth $45,000 an acre. So they get to pay the taxes on that base, you know, you know, value. And they just can't afford to keep it. And so when people don't understand why these large landowners or children have to get to let this land go, that is, that's a big reason. There's a, it's not worth $40,000. I mean, $2,000 an acre or $1,500 an acre anymore. They get to pay what that difference is. And that's part of the economic decision and these children, you know, going off and getting a job that can have a better pay than the farm pays. It's just then the work get to put into it. I mean, there's a lot. There's, there's, you know, you talk to these guys from Alpha or you talk to Rick Pate. What's the next generation of farmers in Alabama look like? They're not people are opting out. Long time farm families are, you know, the new generation is opting to go do something else. And when I was like, I was on a little alpha trips, North Alabama, I don't know about three, four years ago. That's what we talked about. Like, well, they're trying to do things to get people back into it. But given the economics of it, it doesn't seem like there's are many takers. Well, given the economics, it's, I can't, it's probably so overwhelming for someone young to really even be encouraged to try to get into the farming field because, I mean, just how do you, how do you economically do that? When you're laying around here is developed can be developed for, you know, the farmer can sell it for $50,000 an acre, $40,000 an acre. And ag rights are only worth like $7,000 an acre. I mean, so they're, so there is, I do want to say that ball and county has an environmental committee subcommittee that's been working on this and looking at to see if the residents here in ball and county are interested in preserving land and they've talked to farmers. The farmers are worried that this, they're thinking that a voluntary program would be the way to encourage large landowners to probably keep or sell their development rights for a time period. Just say they sell their development rights for the next 30 years, would allow that farm family to continue farming, you know, and just keep the ag rights on it. Agricultural rights. Well, the other thing is, so you go look at other places outside of ball and county. And I know you, you know, guys who like have like made their fortune or they've since retired and just kind of as an investment, they go and they buy some farmland and the idea that it'll preserve and hold value. And almost all of them say, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's just, it's, it's, it's too cost prohibitive. It is very, very difficult and I would recommend against investing a lot of money into buying a farm and trying, trying to do that. I mean, that, that seems problematic to me because then you look at what else you do with the land. Timber seems to be kind of a whole separate animal. And you could use that for like hunting land or whatever, but all over the state, I hear this and that's the gripe like, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but man, it was just, it's a good way to put money into something and lose money. And that is a, that seems like a deterrent. It's a large investment and you just keep your equipment going alone. I mean, if you invest in, you know, new equipment, you've got the new technology. Well, there's a learning curve and even maintenance thing, those pieces of large equipment. You stick with your older tractors, you know, you still have repair issues. You know, there's a, and that's a big part of the issue there. There's large amount of investment in the equipment alone. Bensing, you know, you start getting into your cattle operations, which we talked about last time I talked to you, cattle is at an all time high. And so we're proud that for these cattle farmers, maybe they can recoup some investment there. But yeah, it's a, it's a large investment all the way around and it's kind of a, it's kind of a money pit, but I mean, it looks great. Well, and the other thing about it is, I mean, we'll talk about Baltic County specifically. There's a lot of farmland here. I mean, if they really do start selling it off, it's our building subdivisions or whatever. Well, we'll see environmental impact. It's about the weeks bay and run off there and I'm sure there's other places where they start developing this land and Baltic County keeps to grow. And instead of having, I don't know, 40 acres of farmland there, all of a sudden there's like two subdivisions. What happens? I mean, what does that just kind of take a toll on the resources here? Well, one, well, as you're talking, one thing comes to mind and it was a concern that was brought to my attention and it is a concern. And this is happening just across the street from me, where I live in Bowen County. But you have a 40 acre parcel and this 40 acre parcel for the last, any time we get 80 inches of rain or so, which is not uncommon, many years we've gotten up to 100 inches of rain annually. You'll start having this water kind of sit on top of the soil and the cows grazing is fine. They're tromping around in some water and the grass is still able to grow, but there's a soil layer about four foot down that is actually a hard pan and it just takes a long time for that water to drain. But when we go in there and put a subdivision and plant houses on top of all that, what, and we just move that water to that retention pond. How does replenishing our aquifers, what does that mean for our aquifers and putting water back into those aquifers that this city, you know, this is how our residents get their water is in those aquifers. We're blessed to have some great aquifers, plenty of water, but that has to affect it because we've just taken off a 40 acre parcel of land that slowly percolated through that subsoil layer down to down. But what does that mean, and then how many times does that has to get to happen before it does seriously start to, you know, affect those aquifers. That came to my attention, I had a constituent ask me that question and I've started looking into it and just is a valid concern. And then you talked about the subdivisions, number, the number one issue with nitrites going off, water runoff is off our residential lawns, not necessarily farmers. Yeah, because they are putting out sometimes, you know, you got so many people putting out these nitrites that I'm trying to get to bring that lawn up that just runs off, you know. And so, yeah, it's a, it's an issue, it's a question and valid concerns. Is it, does this really fall on the local government, so the county commission or whatever. I mean, that's where the buck stops. I mean, what is the state legislature? Do you have a role in any of what's going on here development lives? You know, I don't, you know, that's a good question. You know, the county commission, I mean, I feel like environmentally we, you know, this water issue that think that's valid. Yeah, I'm kind of thing, maybe Alabama Department of Environmental Management should be looking into it. I know the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program has looked into it. Those are concerns that city and county government should have provided, making sure their constituents and our people here have water. And that's the water's clean, you know, they would say to you, well, we don't have any affordable housing in Bawa County, and we just saw a place to put places to put people. So, like, they're looking at it from that side of it, too, as the developments come more and more. I mean, I guess it just, at some point, we're going to decide what do you want to be over here, right? I think we can just, it's a balance. It's a balance. I mean, we can have, we can, we've got the largest geographical, you know, county do. I mean, the size wise, we're the largest county on this side of the Mississippi. We can do this. It's just a balance. We can have affordable housing. We can have, we can keep some of our prime agricultural farmlands. It is a struggle for farmers because they cannot, it's hard for them to get up and down the roads with this large equipment. And with so many people on this roadways, for them to safely move their farm equipment up and down the road, it is a huge challenge for them. It's a struggle. Let's, let's get a quick break in here. A state representative, Jennifer Fiddler, sitting in with us here for another segment. 2513430106 is the text on the right back. This is FM Talk, 106.5. I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can. Perhaps I may become a highway man again. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Well, it's a costly endeavor to the coroner. We've had an, I've served on the advisory committee for the coroner's group and looking at exactly, you know, how many deaths that we are processing. You know, we do have in this huge population growth and, you know, these different things are affected and then we have the tourism that comes through, you know, all this. And it has bumped up the numbers of deaths that he is processing. There's an increased number of issues with the sheriff's department that they have to process or they get to process and the district attorney's office. And there's all these businesses that are affected and the coroner's office is one of those. And he is, that affects our percentage of the number of people he processes by at least 15% or so. So the number of people coming down here, some of them die, you know, at the beach and that sort of thing with the coroner's office gets to process those. And he is, they do have additional staff that has been helping. However, is quite a bit, he's, the coroner himself has gone through several certifications and trying to keep his education up and he has his deputy staff that's done the same thing. And then it's just the number of people that have come in. Fentanyl is our number one death, by the way, here in Bowen County, Fentanyl overdose. He's got a way of tracking that and testing that that's up to date. But he really needs the coroner's office and we need, I feel like in Bowen County, a way to get these bodies in and actually figure out why they died. I think we owe that to the families. We owe that to the, the person who died to know, you know, the cause of death and to really have time to process that with a number of people we've got in coming in and the, just the lack of space has made that very difficult for him to really get that process. And he's doing a great job. I said we got to get out of here, but thanks for coming by. We'll do it again a couple of weeks. Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate it. We'll be right back in 7 o'clock, 1 0 6 5.