Ag Secretary Urges Support for Agriculture

The secretary of agriculture has one of the toughest jobs in the administration. Despite the title, direct support to agriculture is only a small part of the USDA, but it has everything to do with the rest of it. Maybe a better title would be Secretary of Food, Farming, Feed, Fuel, Fiber and Forestry so that Americans are more aware of how agriculture touches every aspect of their lives.

Last week, U. S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack made a visit to St. Louis where he was the keynote speaker at the St. Louis Agribusiness Club meeting. Noting that 44% of the nation’s agricultural production is located within a 500 mile radius of St. Louis, including 75% of the nation’s corn and soybeans, the secretary focused his remarks the importance of agriculture to the country as a whole.

“It has to do with the value system of this country,” he said. “Virtually everyone who started this country was a farmer and virtually every single founding father came from a rural background. And here’s what they knew and here’s what every farm and ranch family has passed on from generation to generation – and that is that you cannot keep taking from the land. It’s a basic understanding of agriculture.”

Vilsack said that philosophy of giving back has carried over to the young people of rural America. “That’s why 16% of the population of the country lives in rural America but 44% of our military comes from rural America,” he noted.

Vilsack stresses the importance of agriculture and rural America to those in Washington DC, but he says it is critical for those in agriculture to stick together when they represent less than one percent of the population. “There aren’t enough of us to be fussing with each other. We have got to have a single voice about the important role that agriculture plays in the life of every single American.”

You can listen to or download the Secretary’s Comments here: Secretary Vilsack's Remarks