Jackson
The annual Sampson County Friends of Agriculture Ag Rally returns on March 18.
The rally is a long-held tradition for people to gather and remember the importance of agriculture in the Sampson County community.
The 2025 Ag Rally is scheduled to begin with a dinner at 6:30 p.m. in the Sampson County Agri-Expo Center, and everyone is invited to attended.
“The Friends of Ag rally promotes agriculture and educates people that might know absolutely nothing about agriculture,” said Ronnie Jackson, a long-time major supporter of agriculture in Sampson County and an organizer of the event. “This is a very good ag county, one of the top producing in the state. There’s people that live here that know absolutely nothing of what goes on around them and we try to help change that by introducing them to what their county does best, and maybe getting them interested in agriculture.”
This year’s guest speaker is North Carolina’s Secretary of Commerce Lee Lilley. Secretary Lilley was invited to speak this year by Jackson, and was appointed to the office by Governor Josh Stein.
“Over the years we have had the gambit of speakers, from Elizabeth Dole to Dean (Gary) Fox of Agriculture and Life Sciences last year,” Jackson explained. “We don’t always invite an agriculture related person, but to anyone who relates back to the industry through business to jobs. We like to have different speakers come and tell us what they know.”
Jackson said he was delighted to learn that Lilley had been appointed N.C. Secretary of Commerce.
“I know his mom and dad really well and I’ve known that family for a long time; they’re a wonderful family. I just think it would be good for everyone to hear what he has to say.”
Prior to joining the department, Lilley served as the director of economic and pandemic recovery for Governor Roy Cooper. In that position, he coordinated statewide pandemic recovery efforts, served as State Infrastructure Coordinator, and led economic development initiatives for the Cooper Administration. He also advised Cooper Administration leadership on strategy and communications.
Lilley joined former Governor Cooper’s Office in 2018 as the director of legislative affairs, where he led all gubernatorial and executive branch engagement with the North Carolina General Assembly and served as the principal advisor to the governor on policy and legislative strategy.
Jackson noted that Friends of Ag started about 28 years ago as a way to promote agriculture in Sampson County and the surrounding areas, with businesses coming together with farmers and industry to build a more successful agricultural system.
“What we do (in Sampson County) we do really well,” Jackson said. “We came about from issues facing the livestock industry and have evolved from there. We do other things besides this rally, but we try to pitch in as things arise that affect agriculture and just work to build a better agriculture industry across the area.
“The numbers show from a 2022 study that ag is a billion-dollar industry in Sampson and Duplin counties. It’s good for people to come out to this event and get to know the county they live in and better understand how important agriculture is for us,” added Jackson.
Jackson said there are several reasons the public should come out to the Friends of Ag rally on March 18, at the Sampson Agri-Expo Center which begins at 6:30 p.m. with a dinner.
“We think this will be something of interest to the community at-large. It will have good information whether you’re in ag, or not, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican; were not party related at all, we just want people to come out and learn more about agriculture in Sampson County.”
The dinner menu is barbeque and fried chicken. Jackson said with a laugh, “It would be irrelevant to serve anything else.”
Tickets are available at the Sampson County Agri-Expo Center office and at the Cooperative Extension office on Highway 421 South.