Listening to Agriculture

Listening to Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.
President Barack Obama announced the launch of his administration’s Rural Tour Tuesday. Over the coming weeks and months - the President says top administration officials - including Cabinet Secretaries - will fan out across the country to hold a series of discussions on how to strengthen rural America.

OBAMA: These officials will hear about diverse challenges and opportunities facing small towns and communities that are so critical to the fabric of American life. The Rural Tour is going to be an opportunity for us to really hear from people directly and find out how programs and plans that are currently in place are working or not working. We want to know what good ideas people have that we can start initiating now. But we recognize that there’s not going to be any one size fits all approach to strengthening rural communities because they’re vastly different across the country and that’s why we want to hear directly from people so we can start tailoring things to particular communities.

Tour stops are planned in Alaska, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. It all gets started today (Wednesday, July 1) with Joe Biden, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and others in Pennsylvania where President Obama says the focus is on the issue of rural broadband.

OBAMA: This is something that we place a lot of emphasis on because obviously it’s a critical infrastructure for the 21^st century. Town with high-speed internet service, they’re going to be more economically competitive and are better able to provide educational opportunities and healthcare services than those without it.

While that’s the focus of the first meeting - President Obama says that’s not the sole focus of the Rural Tour. He says the administration is also focused on rural development, conservation and other important priorities. 

OBAMA: We have already provided for example $800-million dollars in the Recovery Act to help make rural America a leader in green economies and we also put another $700-million in mandatory farm disaster assistance. Overall my budget requests for 2010 is seeking $61-million dollars in 5-key rural development programs, $42 million for rural education, $73 million for rural health, $250 million to support energy efficiencies and increase national renewable energy supplies.

In combination with the Rural Tour - President Obama says his administration is beginning to implement many of the rural programs discussed during his campaign. He says they are now in the pipeline and he wants to make sure they get to communities.

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