jeff.waters@gaflnews.com



A Live Oak man has declared his candidacy for the presidency of the United States.

James Harlin Carter, 54, plans to be on the ballot in Florida this November. He’s running under the banner of the Real Food Party, of which he is chairman and treasurer. Carter’s running mate is Dennis Stoltzfoos, another Live Oak resident.

Originally from California, Carter has lived here for about five years.

Carter and his wife Cherry own a ranch in Live Oak. They have five children. Carter works as an optician at Family Focus Eye Care on NE Grand Street in Live Oak.

Carter said the first thing he would do as president is reduce the influence of lobbyists.

“I would start by getting rid of all of them,” he said.

Carter said his platform would include welfare as well as educational reform.

“The FCAT stuff is ridiculous,” he said. “I would make a system where people who aren’t quite able to get a passing grade on the test to go through a vocational program to get an education if they like.”

Carter owns a ranch in Live Oak where he raises goats, water buffalo, cows, pigs and other livestock. He said his initial reason for wanting to be president was to change the way Americans eat.

“I have a small goat dairy and it is illegal to sell non-pasteurized milk in Florida. A lot of people like it and it is good for you,” Carter said. “We want to have a right to sell food that is helpful.” Carter is a member of the Slow Food USA organization, the Real Food organization, the Weston A. Price Foundation and various other groups.

His running mate, Stoltzfoos, agrees.

“The way I see it God made real food, it has worked for thousands of years this way,” he said.

Stoltzfoos said he and Carter had long discussed about the need to bring awareness to their cause. That’s how the Real Food party was born.

“The Real Food party is about educating people and helping them make conscious decisions about themselves, the planet and future generations,” Stoltzfoos said.

Stoltzfoos said he and Carter don’t actually plan on winning the White House this time around (a mathematical impossibility, since their names will only appear on the ballot in Florida). “We will be running again in the future, (and) not just us.”

Stoltzfoos hopes others will join the movement and that the party will go national.

“This is real simple, get back to food the way it was our grandparents knew,” Stoltzfoos said.

Stoltzfoos called genetically modified foods “junk.”

Carter said he has no time for debates right now: “The ranch comes first at this point.”

When asked about his opponents, Clinton, Obama and McCain, Carter said, “they spent so much money with campaigning that it tells me what they will do with the economy.”

Stoltzfoos called this year’s major party races “business as usual.”

Carter said he has raised no money yet but he will be hosting a concert sometime in October to raise money for those involved with his program.

You can learn more about Carter’s candidacy at www.votesmart.org.