Secretary of Agriculture
United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
Unexpected to the original conference schedule, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack made an appearance at the breakfast meeting and spoke eloquently about the work of the USDA under the new administration.
Central to the new work is the Know Your Farmer – Know Your Food program (click here for the USDA website).
Key to the address was the “notion of community.” Vilsack spoke of rural communities and the concept of supporting your neighbor. The farmer who loses his barn, or experiences health problems is met with neighbors who raise the barn or put in their neighbor’s crop before their own. As part of the notion of community we must remove the fear of sharing – helping one another.
There was, of course, concerned questioning during the Q&A regarding GMOs. The Secretary posed that there are many sides to this debate, and there are studies that support the opposing side of crop development. Here, a rumble of dissent came from the crowd – and his reception at the end of the Q&A was markedly less enthusiastic than following his prepared remarks.
