A leading vendor of the US delicacy that is the pickle has withdrawn from the Great American State Fair in Washington DC after North Carolina’s booth displayed a video containing a Confederate flag.
The Mt Olive Pickle Company, which is located in eastern North Carolina and bills itself as the “#1 bestselling brand of pickles, peppers and relishes in the US”, told local news station WNCT it had been unaware that an image of the flag would be included in a video as part of the state’s exhibit.
“Mt Olive Pickle Company was invited to participate in the North Carolina exhibit for the Great American State Fair … as part of America’s 250th celebration,” the company said, alluding to the US’s semiquincentennial on Saturday. “We are proud of our North Carolina roots, and we agreed to be a part of an exhibit, as presented to us, that would represent the best of our great state.
“Our company stands on values of human dignity, opportunity, and freedom.”
The Confederacy evoked by the flag was the white supremacist, losing side of the US civil war. It defended the ownership of enslaved people before its civil war defeat.
The vehicle manufacturer Spevco, which also participated in North Carolina’s booth, said the video in question was 45 minutes long, published on YouTube by a creator on the platform, and was about the state’s history. The manufacturer said the video showed the flag for a few seconds, and that moment was shown on news footage of the booth that circulated widely in the media and on social platforms, according to North Carolina’s The News & Observer.
A Spevco spokesperson told the outlet that it “did not create, produce, edit, approve or select this historical video to be shown”. The video was subsequently taken down from the booth.
The News & Observer notes that North Carolina did not fly the Confederate battle flag shown in the video while it was part of the Confederacy. The video showed the flag while the host discussed the history of the state’s flags, according to the outlet. The Confederate battle flag – marked by its field of red and a blue X shape with white stars – has been co-opted over the years by white supremacist hate groups.
The Great American State Fair’s pickle issue was only the latest hiccup to afflict the 16-day event affiliated with the Trump administration and its Republican allies. Low attendance and soaring temperatures that have sent at least seven people to the hospital have left their mark on the festival.
At least seven Democratic-governed states have declined to participate, with most attributing their decision against sending a delegation to budget or scheduling constraints.
North Carolina was one of the states that said they would not attend, citing budgetary reason. But it was represented anyway after companies in the state stepped in with financing.
The Freedom 250 initiative that organized the event said late on Friday that the fair would begin at noon on Saturday instead of 10am because of the heat. Other celebrations affected included those in Virginia and Maryland, and parades in Philadelphia and DC were canceled.
The decision by Mt Olive to pull out of the state fair is not without irony. Confederate troops were issued pickles and other pickled or dried vegetables as rations to prevent scurvy.
Fortune Business Insights puts the size of the global pickle business at more than $26bn in 2025, with the US market share estimated at 35%.
Pickles are not the only food to come under the political spotlight on the nation’s 250th birthday.
On Friday, Donald Trump declared a nationwide scallops day in observation of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) action aimed at opening up fishing on the north edge of Georges Bank off the coast of New England.
Trump said the action would mean more jobs for fishers along the east coast.
The political context of the celebrations have broken surface in more direct ways.
At Mount Rushmore on Friday, Trump spoke of communism as a “mortal threat to American liberty”.
That came hours after New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, in his own speech on Friday appeared to reference Trump as an authoritarian.
“Those ideals upon which our nation was built – they are strong enough to endure any authoritarian regime, but only if we reach for them,” Mamdani said.
