RALEIGH, N.C. – Perhaps one of the more contentious hot-button issues between the two parties is the idea of climate change. Now, Democrats are making it a front-and-center issue, adding it to their platform this election.

 

Orange County farmer Ken Dawson says he believes it's an issue that needs to be talked about.

“Growing vegetables on a 12-months basis in our fickle North Carolina climate is always challenging, but it is becoming moreso,” he says.

Dawson, who owns Maple Springs Gardens farm, says North Carolina has never been known for a stable and predictable weather pattern, but he says he believes it is becoming more erratic.

“2002, I remember, was the driest year in 100 years,” he says, “followed the very next year by the wettest year in a 100 years.”

Under the party platform Democrats are considering this week, they say "climate change is a global emergency." The document points to the storms, wildfires, and historic flooding over the past few years. Democrats says they will reverse rollbacks by President Donald Trump on climate and environmental protections.

“Joe (Biden) will rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and fight the threat of climate change by transitioning us to 100 percent clean electricity over the next 15 years,” former presidential hopeful and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says.

For Dawson, he says changing weather patterns have already had an adverse effect on farming, and he believes it will only get worse.

“It’s hard enough already. It’s always been hard to farm, and it always will be. But it is going to become harder, it is becoming harder,” he says.