Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack visited the Farm Progress Show in Iowa Tuesday, the first time he has visited the show since 2012.

Vilsack used the occasion to talk about some recent accomplishments, including expanding rural broadband, conservation and biofuel provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, new opportunities to improve nutrient management, an organic transition initiative, and funding for higher biofuel blend infrastructure.

In addition, Vilsack announced three grant recipients under the Climate Smart Commodities Program announced earlier this year. “I honestly thought we’d get 50 applications, maybe 100,” said Vilsack. “We ended up getting 1050 applications. The requests of those applications was over 20 billion dollars.”

He says the rest of the grants will be awarded the week of September 13.

Listen to Vilsack’s remarks with questions from Max Armstrong and Jacqui Fatka with Farm Progress.
FPS22 Sec. Tom Vilsack (29:31)