Ray Starling, who grew up on a farm in North Carolina and worked as chief of staff for Sen. Thom Tillis, will serve as White House adviser on agriculture, trade and food assistance, said the National Economic Council. The National Pork Producers Council, a farm group, called the appointment “a clear signal of (President Trump’s) commitment to reverse unnecessary regulations inhibiting pork producers and all U.S. farmers.”
Starling became Tillis’ chief of staff following the senator’s election in 2014. Before that, he was general counsel and agriculture adviser to Tillis in the North Carolina legislature, and had also been general counsel for the North Carolina Agriculture Department. The pork council said the ag-adviser job was vacant during most of the Obama era, and called Starling “a true champion of agriculture.” Tillis was a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee during his first two years in the Senate.
North Carolina is second to Iowa in hog production, with 13 percent of all U.S. hogs and more than 2,100 pig farms. Environmental groups have complained of pollution from large-scale hog farms. The largest U.S. hog-slaughter plant, with a daily capacity of 32,500 hogs, is in Tar Heel, NC. The pork council said Starling’s family raised hogs when he was a child and still farms today.