Promoting Job Programs

Promoting Job Programs. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack was in Portland last Friday to talk about rural job creation. He and Oregon Congressman Kurt Schrader hosted a forum to highlight revitalization opportunities available to rural Oregon communities and businesses. I talked with Vilsack about his message. VILSACK: Well it was an opportunity for folks in rural Oregon to learn a little bit about the number of programs that USDA has. We have over 41 programs in our Rural Development office and a number of programs in our Farm Service office designed to try to help stimulate the economy in addition to the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, our regular programs. Vilsack says there are real challenges for people in rural areas. VILSACK: And Greg I tell you it's important for people to understand the significance of rural America and the challenges that rural America and rural Oregon face. This is not a situation where the last couple of year's times have been tough; it's a circumstance of the last several decades that have been very difficult for the rural economy so we want to let people know that we have actually put into place what we believe is a new framework to revitalize the rural economy and get people excited and interested in living and working and raising their families. They have been working on a number of fronts including conservation, forest restoration, energy and fuel production and broadband expansion. VILSACK: Let me talk about broadband for example. We just announced roughly $20 million dollars being invested in rural Oregon to expand the reach of broadband. It's going to allow the farmers in this area to have real time information on weather and crop market conditions so they can make better informed decisions. It's going to allow small businesses in these rural areas to expand their markets beyond the local markets to a regional and global market. Vilsack says they are working to help restore forests. VILSACK: Creating not only new opportunities for timber products but also for bio-energy. We've invested about $65 million dollars of recovery money in the last year in capital improvements and a little over $100 million dollars in wild land fire management, restoring the forests, reducing hazardous fuels and so forth so lots of opportunities being created with still a long way to go but were it not for broadband expansion for the conservation and forest programs and some of the things were doing with energy we'd be facing a much steeper hill to climb. Vilsack also toured the Oregon Food Bank, which has received over $1.8 million in Recovery Act grants to assist with the purchase of bulk foods and administrative costs. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.