CHARLESTON – Tucker County High School FFA Students traveled to Charleston Monday to attend the West Virginia Small Farms Conference and had the opportunity to meet with some local elected officials.

Tucker County FFA Instructor Terry Hauser said he and four FFA Students had the opportunity to visit both the House and Senate and met with West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Kent Leonardt during their visit.

Hauser said he feels Leonardt will be a good asset to the state as well as to the FFA programs.

“I think he will be more fiscally responsible,” Hauser said. “There is a lot of equipment scattered around the state where money was spent to purchase equipment, but that equipment is not in use. This is because there was not a good plan in place to keep the equipment operational. I know Commissioner Leonardt’s office is looking at that to see how they can get that equipment working.”

Tucker County High School and FFA have benefitted from equipment that the West Virginia Department of Agriculture helped them to secure in the past including a high tunnel and walk-in coolers.

“Commissioner Leonardt spoke about his ideas to move the West Virginia Department of Agriculture forward,” Hauser said. “Our FFA is always looking for opportunities to move local food and his office is all about that.”

Hauser said one particular hot topic is slaughterhouse regulations in the state.

“The Agriculture Department is looking to get more slaughterhouses in the state,” Hauser said. “They are working to ease regulations so smaller slaughterhouses can start up. That is going to be a big discussion during this legislative session.”

Hauser said even starting a small slaughterhouse takes lots of start-up funding which makes it nearly impossible to establish a new slaughterhouse at TCHS.

“But if the regulations were eased, we could possibly partner with some smaller slaughterhouses in the community that are doing some of that,” he said. “There are small businesses around that have the necessary equipment, but do not have the work force to make it happen. We may be able to partner with some of those businesses.”

During Monday’s visit, FFA Students Evan Shahan, Austin Cousins, Jacob Hauser and West Virginia State FFA President Andrew Hauser met with Senator Dave Sypolt, R-Preston and Delegate Tony Lewis, R-Preston. Students toured both the House and Senate Chambers.

“Our students learned about the workings of state government during their visit,” Hauser said. “They also went to the committee rooms where they saw bills being discussed before presentation to the House and Senate for voting.”

This is the sixth year TCHS FFA students have traveled to Charleston to attend the Small Farms Conference.