“Grounded in Our Roots, Focused on Our Future”

- DeShawn L. Blanding

Pillar 3: protection

The Problem

South Carolina's agricultural future depends on modernizing the systems that protect both consumers and working lands. The Department's consumer protection responsibilities — including oversight of 24,000 retail food establishments, fuel quality, and commercial weights and measures — were built for an economy that has changed dramatically. At the same time, the state's agricultural foundation is under growing pressure. If current trends continue, South Carolina could lose another 436,700 acres of farmland by 2040 as development accelerates, while heirs' property continues to threaten generational land ownership. A modern Department of Agriculture must both strengthen public confidence in the marketplace and protect the working lands that make South Carolina agriculture possible.

The Plan

LAnd Preservation

  • The General Assembly passed the Working Farmland Protection Act, signed into law in March 2024, which created a Working Farmland Protection Fund within the SC Conservation Bank that compensates landowners up to 50% of their easement value for conservation easements that permanently preserve their farmland. As Commissioner, build on this foundation by:

    • Advocating for sustained and increased annual appropriations to the Working Farmland Protection Fund — the inaugural year had more eligible applicants than available funds.

    • Using the Commissioner’s bully pulpit and relationships with the Legislature to make farmland protection a budget priority year over year.

    • Working with land trusts, USDA’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, and local governments to stack funding sources and stretch every conservation dollar further.

  • Heirs’ property — land passed through generations without a formal title, disproportionately affecting Black farm families in the Black Belt and rural Lowcountry — is one of the most urgent and underaddressed challenges in South Carolina agriculture. Without a clear title, landowners cannot access USDA loan programs, conservation easements, or most state agricultural assistance. As Commissioner:

    • Partner with SC State University, the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation, and other legal aid organizations to build a statewide Working Lands Title Clearance Initiative that helps farm families resolve heirs’ property issues and access the full range of agricultural programs.

    • Incorporate heirs’ property assistance into the Regional Innovation Centers as a standard service offering.

    • Advocate for state legislation that strengthens protections for heirs’ property landowners against forced partition sales.

  • Pilot grants for rent-to-own leases to transition land to other farmers, clearing heirs’ property titles, and improving soil and water infrastructure for new, beginning, or veteran producers. Positioned as both a next-generation farmer support tool and a farmland succession instrument — ensuring that when a farmer retires, their land stays in agricultural production rather than being sold to development.

    • Delivering market reports via SMS text alerts and a mobile-friendly platform accessible to farmers without reliable broadband.

    • Partnering with Clemson Extension and SC State’s 1890 Extension to translate market data into accessible formats for beginning farmers.

    • Disaggregating reports by region and farm size so small producers can see pricing relevant to their scale.

    • Expanding coverage to include specialty crops, direct market pricing, and local food hub transaction data — not just commodity markets.

Consumer Protection

  • Direct the Consumer Services division to produce a county-level Consumer Protection Audit analyzing inspection frequency and complaint rates across weighing and measuring devices, fuel dispensers, and retail food establishments. Prioritize rural and lower-income communities where violations create the greatest harm. Publish the findings publicly and use the data to drive inspection scheduling. Pair with a public awareness campaign delivered through community networks so rural consumers know how to report problems at the pump or in the market.

  • As EV charging stations multiply across South Carolina, driven by federal NEVI infrastructure funding, there is currently no state agency systematically inspecting them for accuracy. As Commissioner:

    • Assert and clarify SCDA’s weights and measures authority over commercial EV charging stations, establishing South Carolina as one of the first states to formally bring EV chargers under the same inspection framework as fuel dispensers.

    • Work with the Legislature and the Public Service Commission to codify SCDA’s inspection role, filling the regulatory gap before it becomes a consumer problem at scale.

    • Ensure that rural EV charging stations — being built along SC corridors through NEVI funds — are held to the same accuracy and labeling standards as urban stations, protecting rural drivers who have fewer alternatives if a station is faulty.

  • SCDA absorbed DHEC’s retail food safety responsibilities in July 2024, adding 24,000 establishments to its oversight portfolio. Ensure this transition serves all South Carolinians by:

    • Conducting a rural food safety compliance assistance program that helps small food producers and processors understand and meet permit requirements, removing barriers that cause small operations to remain informal or unlicensed.

    • Publishing county-level food safety inspection data in a public-facing dashboard so communities can hold establishments accountable and track improvement over time.

    • Prioritizing outreach to communities without grocery stores or fresh food access, where food safety oversight is most critical and historically least consistent.

  • The Commissioner sets fuel quality standards and labeling requirements for all motor fuel sold in South Carolina. E15 — a blend of 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline represents both a consumer savings opportunity and a new domestic market for South Carolina’s corn farmers. As Commissioner:

    • Use existing labeling and quality standard authority to establish clear, consistent E15 pump standards statewide.

    • Work with fuel distributors and retailers to expand E15 availability, particularly in rural communities where farmers are both producing the corn and paying for the fuel.

    • Advocate for SC-grown corn as the feedstock for any in-state ethanol blending operations, connecting to the SC Corn Board and existing commodity infrastructure.

    • Promote E15 as a consumer savings tool — it typically costs less per gallon than E10 — while simultaneously creating new domestic demand for SC corn farmers.