RALEIGH – Although North Carolina’s economy and employment base have changed significantly over the past few decades, plenty of evidence remains of our agrarian past. Head out of any of the state’s major metropolitan areas and you will fairly quickly start to see fields planted in grains, tobacco, vegetables, and other crops. You will see livestock.

Agriculture remains a critical element of North Carolina’s economic present and future. But like many other sectors, it’s under siege – from a credit squeeze, from the effects of worldwide recession, and from ceaseless assault by governments and political extremists.

Here’s how the state’s farm sector breaks out in sales, according to 2007 data from the state department of agriculture, and how public policymakers are burdening each industry:

• 35 percent from poultry. Some federal and state officials have been oh-so-helpfully working to make it easier for labor unions to organize chicken and turkey processors. Inevitably, this would make North Carolina establishments less competitive in the international market.

• 22 percent from swine. In addition to liberalizing union rules, some policymakers have for years sought to abolish the lagoon system that handles the majority of swine waste. The alternatives would be more costly, again cutting into the ability of North Carolina producers to compete and likely resulting in production and job losses.

• 10 percent from nurseries, including Christmas trees. The nursery business is reeling from the effects of the housing slowdown, which has reduced demand for landscaping. If some Smart Growth activists have their way, the slowdown in new-home construction won’t be a temporary one. They want people to live in denser communities and are willing to use taxes, regulations, and transportation policies to engineer their desired outcome.

• 7 percent from tobacco. It goes without saying that many government officials are currently engaged in a serious effort to strangle and ultimately destroy the tobacco industry, using new excise taxes, smoking bans, and the prospect of federal FDA regulation.

• 5 percent from beef and dairy cattle. Inspired by what they consider to be successful litigation and regulation against Big Tobacco, some kooks are now ready to take on the fast-food industry with punitive taxes and lawsuits.

• 21 percent from vegetables and other crops. While talking a good game about wanting to nurture farming and encourage the wider consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, many politicians are in practice making it harder to grow and bring produce to market by neglecting North Carolina’s roadways and imposing punitive taxes. At the federal level, they are blocking the passage of free-trade agreements that would open new market opportunities for North Carolina growers. A few dollops of largesse and words of praise about farmer’s market won’t help much in such an environment.

By no means do I want the state or federal government to subsidize farmers. Indeed, most farmers today produce for the private market, not under the auspices of federal farm programs. If I had my druthers, I’d abolish all the subsidies tomorrow.

But first things first. Those who say they want North Carolina farming to remain a viable enterprise should stop trying to cripple it.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation