Deputy Secretary Visits California

Deputy Secretary Visits California. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan is visiting California’s farm belt to meet with state agricultural leaders and make a significant announcement about new funding available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

MERRIGAN: The Pacific Northwest as you know is a big part of American agriculture, a big part of worldwide agriculture and so on my first trip outside Washington DC I decided it was time to get over to this part of the country to get a scope of what the problems are, the challenges and also the opportunites.

Merrigan spent time at UC Davis discussing research and visited with California Farm Bureau regarding issues confronting producers. She is expected to make a major announcement later today.

MERRIGAN: I’m here in part this week to talk about the stimulus money and what this President and this administration is doing to help out with the economy, with rural America and of course a major part of that is what can we do to help American agriculture. That’s part of this message on this tour but it’s also a listening tour.

She intends taking those comments back to Washington but what kinds of things are the ag producers in California saying?

MERRIGAN: People are telling me that life is rough if you are a dairy farmer, that California faces severe drought situations, that we have pest challenges like never before, that we are facing an obesity crisis and questions about nutrition and the health of American’s generally. So we’re talking about the tough problems that confront us.

Even with all the challenges facing farmers and ranchers, Merrigan says it’s also a great time to be in agriculture and she is excited and humbled by her new position with USDA.

MERRIGAN: I’m not coming to California with all the answers. I’m sorry, I don’t have this big purse of all kinds of immediate solutions to the problems but I’m trying to say – I’m here, I’m rolling up my shirt sleeves, I’m ready to work with you, I want to be your partner. We’ve got all these challenges but coming new to the job as Deputy Secretary I see a lot of opportunity for wealth creation in rural America if we figure out how to use our dollars wisely and target them well.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.