Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack began his press conference at the 2014 National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention by thanking those who attended for their work.
“Obviously without your voices and without your access to audiences across the country, we wouldn’t be as successful in terms of getting the messages about the implementation of this new farm bill,” said Vilsack. “So we at USDA owe you all a debt of gratitude for the work you do every single day to connect rural folks with the activities of their government.”
Vilsack gave an update on farm bill implementation, and answered questions about the COOL WTO ruling, new Senate leadership, WOTUS, a second beef checkoff, China, trade negotiations, biotechnology, and more.
Vilsack also pointed out that he has now surpassed former Secretary Dan Glickman as the longest serving agriculture secretary in modern times. “Something which I’m very proud of and he’s very irritated about,” he joked. Technically, it looks like it will actually be December 10 when Vilsack meets Glickman’s total time in office of 5 years, 10 months and 20 days – but, we’ll give it to him anyway!
Listen to or download the press conference here: Secretary Vilsack at NAFB 2014
