RFA Ethanol Podcast

Obama More than a Number at Wyffels

Cindy Zimmerman

He may have mispronounced their name at first, but it was still a great honor for Wyffels Hybrids to host President Obama during his Town Hall Meeting in Atkinson, Illinois on Wednesday.

“I want to thank the Waffles family for — (laughter) — Wyffels, rather, excuse me. I haven’t had lunch,” reads the official transcript of the president’s opening remarks at the Wyffels Hybrids Production Facility. Obama also noted that he “spent some time with some cows” at the Whiteside County Fair prior to arriving at Wyffels, so it was a very agriculture day for the POTUS. You can see some photos from the event on the Wyffels Facebook page.

The president got a couple of serious questions about agriculture during the meeting, starting with the very first one from a local corn and soybean grower, who was applauded by the crowd for telling Obama not to challenge the nation’s food producers with more rules and regulations. “We would prefer to start our day in a tractor cab or combine cab rather than filling out forms and permits to do what we’d like to do,” he told the president, noting particular concern about regulations regarding dust and water runoff.

“If you hear something is happening, but it hasn’t happened, don’t always believe what you hear,” Obama responded. “And I’m being perfectly honest, the lobbyists and the associations in Washington, they’ll get all ginned up and they’ll start sending out notices to everybody saying, look what’s coming down the pike. And a lot of times we are going to be applying common sense.” He suggested that if farmers have concerns about the administration “putting something in place that’s going to make it harder for you to farm, contact USDA. Talk to them directly. Find out what it is that you’re concerned about. My suspicion is a lot of times they’re going to be able to answer your questions and it will turn out that some of your fears are unfounded.”

That’s right, folks. If you’re worried about the impending rules and regs that the administration is considering that might impact your farming operation, you just give USDA a call and ask them about it and they will set you straight in no time.

Read the White House transcript of the meeting here and watch the video here.

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