More with Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack
More with Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.
On Monday, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack fielded a myriad of questions from reporters on a variety of subjects. Today we continue with a question about the
VILSACK: I think there is a recognition that the Farm Bill has a number of new programs and a number of wrinkles to existing programs and there was a desire of folks on the field, producers, folks within my office to make sure that we gave folks enough time to fully understand and appreciate the various nuances and changes that have taken place to existing programs; that we gave the ACRE program at least more time to be understood so that people could make informed choices and decisions about which of the options that would best fit their current production process and so we thought the June 1 deadline was maybe a little tight.
The Secretary was asked about renewable energy and whether there would be any increases in investment dollars next year.
VILSACK: We had suggested in the President’s budget as a result of the instructions the President gave to me to be aggressive in this area we have proposed additional money for REAP which is part of the energy title and part of the farm bill programs. It is a program that we think based on past history has been quite popular. There has been a lot of interest in it. We’re in the process right now of funding audits for producers and ranchers to take a look at their operations to encourage them to embrace renewables and biofuels. It’s very consistent with the Presidents direction to me to encourage our farmers and ranchers to think of ways they can move away from dependence on foreign oil.
Finally the question was asked about the administrations decision to cut the Market Access Program.
VILSACK: What we attempted to do was to continue to invest in trade promotion for American products, generally. I believe the USDA’s responsibility in export assistance is to continue to help the 6 or 700 companies that are marketing if you will American products and the trade associations that are marketing American products. The monies that were reduced from the budget were really designed and focused to promote specific identifiable products and we think there are other ways for those companies to provide marketing opportunities throughout the world. You’ve got to keep in mind that MAP received an increase in ’08 and even with what we’ve proposed it will still be higher than in previous years.
That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
