SC House Committee Passes Collard Green Bill

A bill to make collards the official state vegetable of South Carolina passed easily in a House subcommittee and committee Tuesday, despite objections that such bills are a waste of time.

Columbia resident John Karaniuk says, "Yeah, it's definitely a waste of time. There's certainly a lot more things that they could be doing besides figuring out what the state vegetable is."

Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia, is the main sponsor of the bill. He says he introduced it after 9-year-old Mary Grace Wingard, whose family grows collards, asked him to.

The bill states that South Carolina is the number two producer of collard greens in the nation and Lexington County is the state's top producer. "Let me tell you something: it brings in a lot of money for this state, a lot of taxes and employs a lot of people," Sen. Knotts says.

The bill has passed the full Senate and, after passing in subcommittee and committee Tuesday, now goes to the full House.

The bill passed 14 to 1 in the House agriculture committee. The only vote against it was by Rep. Kevin Ryan, R-Pawleys Island.

"I voted against the bill because it represents why so many people in our state are frustrated with government," he says. "We have very important issues facing our state and we don’t need to be wasting time designating official state vegetables. I have nothing against collard greens- just the practice of wasting time and taking actions that have no positive impact on the lives of South Carolinians.

But Sen. Knotts says these kinds of bills are not a waste of time for several reasons. First, they don't take much time, since they're usually not controversial and lawmakers take just a few minutes to pass them. Second, designating something as an official state symbol can help with its popularity and marketing.

He says, "We want people to think about, when they talk about collards and eat collards on New Year's Day, that they look at that bag and say, 'It came from South Carolina.'"

Columbia resident Joy Kindred says, "I think it's worth a minute of their time to look into. I mean, it's important for the jobs."

Meanwhile, the Senate began its fifth week of budget debate and still hasn't gotten to tort reform, a major issue on its calendar. But Sen. Knotts says since the collards bill passed quickly with no controversy, it had no impact on the budget taking so long or the tort reform bill.

If the bill passes in the House and becomes law, collards would join a long list of other state symbols. South Carolina already has an official state fruit (peaches), official state beverage (milk), official state hospitality beverage (tea), state animal (whitetail deer), state fish (striped bass), even a state insect (Carolina Mantid).