Two of the candidates for governor took their messages to the North Carolina Farm Bureau Thursday.

Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue and Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory separately addressed a crowd of farmers from across the state and outlined their plans to support agriculture.

The cost of fuel has caused a struggle to fuel North Carolina's farms but there is also promise in the form of harvesting new energy.

Pat McCrory told about 300 members of the Farm Bureau that North Carolina should invest in new technology like wind, and the old method of offshore drilling.

"Why can't we invest in energy in many of these towns, especially in the east and re-build our economy by investing in energy business and one way we can do that is by deep sea exploration of natural gas and oil," McCrory said.

Perdue opposes offshore drilling but like McCrory supports new "green" forms of energy as well as bio-fuel.

"I worry about how we create new opportunities, not just sustain the old things that we're doing so well, and that's what you want in your next leader," Perdue said.

And farmers like Jerry Wyant of Lincoln County are listening, and looking for a little relief.

"Yeah we making a little money, but we gonna turn around and pass it on to somebody else whether it be the gas company, the fertilizer company," Wyant said.

With a $45,000 dollar fuel bill this year Wyant believes McCrory can better deal with the energy crisis. But Perdue is playing up her experience in the general assembly representing farming communities and has Billy Johnston, a dairy farmer from Henderson County, convinced.

"I just feel more comfortable she can understand agriculture's problems in the state better than Mr. McCrory can," Johnston said.

Some of those problems are the global economy, water availability and maintaining a trained workforce. Perdue and McCrory said having farmers in the next generation is a high priority.

"What I wanna do is tie our labor needs into our education strategy, I wanna introduce more vocational education into our high schools," McCrory said.

"That workforce, creating it sustaining it and growing it is one of the three main pillars of my campaign," Perdue said.

Both Perdue and McCrory also voiced their support for bio-technology, a field North Carolina is already a leader.