The Farm Lobby — Tuesday, June 9, 2026

A plowed North Carolina field drawn as furrows converging toward a low harvest sun, a single wheat stalk in the foreground.
Lapel Intelligence · Edition 7 · 2026-06-09

The Farm Lobby

North Carolina still calls agriculture its largest industry, and the General Assembly is mid-argument about its future. A constitutional Right to Farm would go to voters if approved by the legislature. The NC Farm Act of 2025 has been waiting in conference for nearly a year. A foreign-ownership-of-land bill reaches quietly into title and deed. This is the lobbying field around all three — who is registered, whom they carry, and what each fight is actually about.

A Lapel Intelligence Report
Edition 0701 / 27
The Landscape

Who Works the Farm Lobby

The principals registered across North Carolina agriculture, grouped by their lane and sized by their 2026 lobbyist count.

Principal · Lane
Farm groups
Commodity groups
Agribusiness
Tobacco
Total
NC Farm Bureau
North Carolina Farm Bureau Federation, Inc.
13
13
NC Pork Council
North Carolina Pork Council
3
3
Smithfield Foods
Smithfield Foods, Inc.
3
3
Wayne-Sanderson Farms
Wayne-Sanderson Farms, LLC
3
3
Agricultural Alliance
Agricultural Alliance of North Carolina
2
2
NC State Grange
NC State Grange
2
2
SweetPotato Commission
North Carolina SweetPotato Commission
2
2
Syngenta
Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC
2
2
Cattleman's Association
North Carolina Cattleman's Association, Inc.
1
1
Dairy Producers
North Carolina Dairy Producers Association
1
1
Poultry Federation
North Carolina Poultry Federation, Incorporated
1
1
Universal Leaf
Universal Leaf Tobacco Company, Inc.
1
1
013+Cells show active lobbyist counts by lane
Tap a firm name to open its profile.
One bench changes the scale.
The Farm Bureau cell is the outlier: thirteen active lobbyists in one farm-group lane, more than the rest of the visible agriculture registry combined.
Active NC Secretary of State lobbying registrations as of June 2, 2026.
Rows show agricultural principals identified for this edition; cells count active lobbyists registered for that principal in the displayed lane.
Edition 0702 / 27
By the Numbers

Agriculture by the Numbers

Three bills carry the session for agriculture; the registry around them is small, concentrated, and built on a single large in-house team.

On the agenda
3
A constitutional amendment, an omnibus, and a land measure
Proposed referendum
1
SB 1081, if approved by the legislature
On one bench
13
The largest single farm bench at the Capitol
Commodity groups registered
5
Pork, poultry, cattle, dairy, and sweet potato
Edition 0703 / 27
Inside Edition 7

Five Chapters on the Farm Lobby

Three bills, then the field that works them.

  1. 01
    I. The Ballot Question — SB 1081 would write a right to farm into the state constitution, and would go to voters if approved by the legislature.
  2. 02
    II. The Omnibus in Conference — SB 401, the NC Farm Act of 2025, gathers a session of agricultural changes and has been waiting since last summer.
  3. 03
    III. The Land Question — SB 394 would bar certain foreign parties from owning farmland, and reaches into how land ownership is documented.
  4. 04
    IV. The Field — the Farm Bureau bench, the commodity groups, and the agribusiness and tobacco principals.
  5. 05
    V. The Shared Benches — the contract lobbyists who carry several farm clients at once.
Edition 0704 / 27
The Docket

The Session's Three Farm Bills

Where each bill sits, who introduced it, and which registered principals the bill touches. Movement and sponsors update from the legislative record.

SB 1081In Committee

Constitutional Right to Farm

  1. Introduced
  2. In Committee
  3. Passed One Chamber
  4. Passed Both Chambers
  5. Signed into Law

Last action May 18, 2026

Primary sponsors
and 13 more primary sponsors
Joined by 3 co-sponsors
Registered interest
and 20 more registered
A proposed constitutional amendment. If it clears both chambers, the question goes to voters at the November 3, 2026 general election.
SB 401In Conference

NC Farm Act of 2025

  1. Introduced
  2. In Committee
  3. Passed One Chamber
  4. Passed Both Chambers
  5. Signed into Law

Last action Jun 30, 2025

Primary sponsor
Joined by 5 co-sponsors
Registered interest
and 20 more registered
The NC Farm Act of 2025 — an omnibus of agricultural changes. It passed the Senate and has been in conference since last summer.
SB 394In Committee

Prohibit Foreign Ownership of NC Land

  1. Introduced
  2. In Committee
  3. Passed One Chamber
  4. Passed Both Chambers
  5. Signed into Law

Last action May 12, 2026

Primary sponsors
and 8 more primary sponsors
Retitled the North Carolina Farmland and Military Protection Act. Its land-ownership documentation provisions have drawn the least public attention.
NC General Assembly · bill text and actions, 2025–2026 session
Edition 0705 / 27
Chapter Chapter I background
Chapter I
The Ballot Question

A Right to Farm, Headed for the Ballot

SB 1081 would add a right to engage in farming and forestry to the North Carolina Constitution — and unlike an ordinary statute, it would go to voters if the General Assembly approves it. A Senate committee substitute names the November 3, 2026 general election.

Edition 0706 / 27
SB 1081 · The Text

What the Amendment Says

The proposed section is short. It names the practices it protects, and it names the only authority that may limit them.

  1. 01
    It would add a new section to Article I — the Declaration of Rights — protecting the right to engage in farming and forestry.
  2. 02
    The protected practices are spelled out: cultivating crops, raising livestock and poultry, producing dairy and apiary products, and harvesting timber.
  3. 03
    The right is "subject only to laws enacted by the General Assembly and rules adopted pursuant to authority granted by the General Assembly."
  4. 04
    A Senate committee substitute set the question for the November 3, 2026 general election, conducted under the election laws in effect at that time.
  5. 05
    The ballot will read, in plain terms, for or against a constitutional amendment protecting the right to engage in farming and forestry.
Edition 0707 / 27
SB 1081 · The Argument

The Local-Authority Question

Most of the debate turns on a single clause — that the right is limited only by acts of the General Assembly. Supporters and opponents read it differently.

  1. 01
    Supporters describe a shield: a constitutional footing for farming and forestry against future restrictions on ordinary agricultural practice.
  2. 02
    Because the text names only the General Assembly as the source of limits, the question follows of how county and municipal ordinances on farm and forestry practices would sit beside a state constitutional right.
  3. 03
    Local-government interests have raised that question in other states with similar amendments, where courts have since had to weigh nuisance suits, zoning, and environmental rules against a right-to-farm clause.
  4. 04
    Because it is a constitutional amendment, the resolution would not rest with the legislature alone if approved — it would go to voters, and then to the courts that interpret it.
The omnibus is the opposite: all statute, no ballot.
Edition 0708 / 27
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Edition 0709 / 27
Chapter Chapter II background
Chapter II
The Omnibus in Conference

The NC Farm Act of 2025

SB 401 is the session's agricultural omnibus — a single act making "various changes to the agricultural laws of this state." It passed the Senate and went to conference, where it has waited since last summer.

Edition 0710 / 27
SB 401 · The Contents

What the Farm Act Carries

An omnibus gathers many small changes under one title. SB 401 runs from water planning to wild pigs to a permitting fix for animal-waste systems.

  1. 01
    It directs an update to the state's plan for protecting agricultural water resources — infrastructure, long-term storage, conservation, and reuse — with a report due to the legislature's agriculture oversight committee.
  2. 02
    It folds flood mitigation into that plan: temporary water storage on farmland, and incentives to compensate landowners who participate.
  3. 03
    It establishes a Feral Swine Working Group, housed within the Wildlife Resources Commission, to address the wild-hog population that damages crops and land.
  4. 04
    It makes a technical correction to the statute governing liquid animal-waste management systems — the permitting framework beneath the state's hog operations.
  5. 05
    It cleared the Senate and went to a conference committee, where the two chambers' versions have not yet been reconciled.
The third bill is quieter, and about land itself.
Edition 0711 / 27
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Edition 0712 / 27
Chapter Chapter III background
Chapter III
The Land Question

Who Can Own the Land

SB 394 began as a foreign-ownership prohibition and was retitled the North Carolina Farmland and Military Protection Act. Its headline is national security; its quieter machinery is land records.

Edition 0713 / 27
SB 394 · The Mechanics

The Title-and-Deed Bill

The bill bars certain foreign parties from acquiring farmland and land near military installations. The part that draws less notice is how it would track ownership.

  1. 01
    It would add a new article to the General Statutes barring acquisition of agricultural land, or land adjacent to military installations, by a prohibited foreign party.
  2. 02
    A House committee substitute swapped the earlier "adversarial foreign government" language for "prohibited foreign party," reworking the definitions of who is covered.
  3. 03
    It provides for divestment of land already held by covered parties — a forced-sale mechanism, not only a forward-looking ban.
  4. 04
    It calls for documentation and registration of land ownership by covered entities — the provision that reaches into title, deed, and county records.
  5. 05
    It is the only one of the three bills with no agricultural principals registered to it, a land-and-security measure moving largely without a visible farm lobby.
Edition 0714 / 27
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Edition 0715 / 27
Chapter Chapter IV background
Chapter IV
The Field

Who Speaks for Agriculture

The farm lobby is not large, but it is anchored. One federation keeps a thirteen-person team; the commodity groups keep one or two lobbyists each; the agribusiness names sit alongside them.

Edition 0716 / 27
Principals by Lobbyist Count

The Farm Lobby by Bench Size

Registered lobbyists per agricultural principal, June 2026. One federation accounts for more than the rest combined.

  1. 01NC Farm Bureau13 lobbyists
  2. 02NC Pork Council3 lobbyists
  3. 03Smithfield Foods3 lobbyists
  4. 04Wayne-Sanderson Farms3 lobbyists
  5. 05Agricultural Alliance of North Carolina2 lobbyists
  6. 06NC State Grange2 lobbyists
  7. 07NC SweetPotato Commission2 lobbyists
  8. 08Syngenta Crop Protection2 lobbyists
NC Secretary of State · 2026 lobbyist registry
Edition 0717 / 27
In-House Team

The Farm Bureau Bench

The North Carolina Farm Bureau Federation fields its own thirteen-person team — by a wide margin the largest single agricultural bench at the Capitol, and the reason the sector reads as concentrated.

  1. 01
    Boyette, James Edward
  2. 02
    Coan, Anne Fratzke
  3. 03
    Cook, Meghan Nicholson
  4. 04
    Herring, Stephen Albert
  5. 05
    Kilian, Laura E.
  6. 06
    Larick, Keith Duane
  7. 07
    Parker, Phillip Jacob
  8. 08
    Peele, Mitchell Allen
  9. 09
    Sereno, Stacy Revels
  10. 10
    Sherman, Michael Paul
  11. 11
    Thomas, Ashley Marie
  12. 12
    Tyndall, Zannah Jane
  13. 13
    Woodson, Stephen A.
Edition 0718 / 27
Sector Spotlight

The Commodity Groups

Below the Farm Bureau, the sector splits into commodity associations — each speaking for one corner of the field, most with one or two registered lobbyists.

  1. 01
    North Carolina Pork Council · 3 lobbyists
    The voice of the hog sector — the largest commodity bench after the Farm Bureau. Its interests run through the animal-waste permitting framework the Farm Act touches.
  2. 02
    Agricultural Alliance of North Carolina · 2 lobbyists
    A coalition voice registered alongside several commodity clients through the same contract team.
  3. 03
    NC State Grange · 2 lobbyists
    One of the oldest farm-membership organizations in the state, with its own pair of lobbyists.
  4. 04
    North Carolina SweetPotato Commission · 2 lobbyists
    A single-commodity group for a crop the state leads the country in, sharing the Agricultural Alliance's contract pair.
  5. 05
    North Carolina Cattleman's Association · 1 lobbyist
    The beef-and-cattle voice, sharing one contract lobbyist with the pork and dairy associations.
  6. 06
    North Carolina Dairy Producers Association · 1 lobbyist
    The smallest footprint of the commodity groups, represented by the same lobbyist who carries pork and cattle.
  7. 07
    North Carolina Poultry Federation · 1 lobbyist
    Poultry leads the state in farm value, yet keeps a single registered lobbyist.
Most of these names share a small set of lobbyists. That is the next slide.
NC Secretary of State · 2026 lobbyist registry
Edition 0719 / 27
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Edition 0720 / 27
Chapter Chapter V background
Chapter V
The Shared Benches

One Lobbyist, Several Farms

The commodity groups rarely staff their own teams. They hire contract lobbyists — and a few of those lobbyists carry several farm clients at once, which is why the bench is smaller than the list of names suggests.

Edition 0721 / 27
Cross-Registration

The Contract Hubs

A handful of lobbyists sit at the center of the farm registry, each registered for several agricultural principals at the same time.

  1. 01
    Maier, Angela Whitener · Pork · Cattle · Dairy
    Registered for the North Carolina Pork Council, the North Carolina Cattleman's Association, and the North Carolina Dairy Producers Association — three commodity groups represented by one contract lobbyist rather than separate in-house teams.
  2. 02
    Cooper, John Joseph · Alliance · SweetPotato · Syngenta
    Registers as a pair with Nathaniel William Honaker across the Agricultural Alliance of North Carolina, the North Carolina SweetPotato Commission, and Syngenta Crop Protection.
  3. 03
    Honaker, Nathaniel William · Alliance · SweetPotato · Syngenta
    The other half of that pair, carrying the same farm clients alongside a broader book of non-agricultural work — a reminder that most of these lobbyists are contract generalists, not farm specialists.
The agribusiness names work differently — most carry their own teams.
NC Secretary of State · 2026 lobbyist registry
Edition 0722 / 27
The Companies

Agribusiness and Tobacco

Past the membership groups sit the companies — the processors, the crop-science firms, and the tobacco leaf dealers that still register in Raleigh.

  1. 01
    Smithfield Foods keeps three registered lobbyists, working through a contract team that carries clients well beyond agriculture.
  2. 02
    Wayne-Sanderson Farms, the poultry processor, registers James W. Norment alongside two others.
  3. 03
    Syngenta Crop Protection carries the crop-science interest, registered through the same contract pair that handles the Agricultural Alliance.
  4. 04
    Tobacco still has a presence: Universal Leaf Tobacco and Pyxus International each keep a single lobbyist, a quieter remnant of what was once the state's dominant crop lobby.
  5. 05
    Newer coalition names round out the field — the Modern Ag Alliance and the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association each register a single lobbyist.
Thirteen names on one bench; a single lobbyist on several others.
Edition 0723 / 27
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Edition 0724 / 27
for the first time, a
right to farm
would go before voters if lawmakers approve it
SB 1081 · proposed November 3, 2026 referendum
Edition 0725 / 27
Next Edition
June 12, 2026

GovTech

The June 12 edition maps the vendors running North Carolina's schools, courts, public-safety systems, and cloud infrastructure.

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  • Where the field is concentrated, and where it thins out
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Edition 0726 / 27

About this edition

This edition draws on active lobbying registrations filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State and on the text and recorded actions of three bills in the 2025–2026 session. Lobbyist counts and rosters reflect the registry snapshot of June 2, 2026. A registration is a public record of who is permitted to engage on whose behalf; it is not, by itself, evidence that any individual or organization supports or opposes any specific bill.

Lobbyist registry: NC Secretary of State active registrations, June 2, 2026 snapshot.

Bill text and status: NC General Assembly bill text and actions: SB 1081 (last action May 18, 2026); SB 394 (May 12, 2026); SB 401 (June 30, 2025).

Agricultural principals: Identified from a keyword-and-category classification of registered principals. The classification surfaces sector overlap and is broader than the named farm groups; it does not assert that a principal lobbied a specific bill.

Bill movement and sponsors: Resolved from the legislative record; primary sponsors and committee status as of each bill's last recorded action.

All lobbyist–principal relationships reflect current registrations rather than historical records. Entity links resolve to live Lapel Intelligence profiles and update with each weekly registry refresh.