Eight Ag Secretaries

Eight Ag Secretaries. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

The USDA began it’s yearlong 150th anniversary celebration during the first day of USDA’s 2012 Agricultural Outlook Forum. To commemorate USDA's rich history as well as its potential, Secretary Vilsack moderated a panel discussion with former Secretaries of Agriculture Ed Schafer, Mike Johanns, Ann Veneman, Dan Glickman, Mike Espy, Clayton Yeutter and John Block. Former Secretary Bob Bergland was taken to the hospital with a medical emergency. The festivities were kicked of by the 16th President of the United States, the man who created the Department of Agriculture, Abraham Lincoln.

LINCOLN: It is a pleasure to be here celebrating the department I helped found 150 years ago and what I fondly call the “People’s Department.” Agriculture touched 100% of our lives then and it still does today. I once said the most valuable of all arts will be the art of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest area of soil. not so much has changed.

Well actually that was actor Bob Gleason portraying Lincoln. Current Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack hosted the seven former secretaries in a panel discussion.

VILSACK: It’s really a historic event for us and maybe even a historic event for a cabinet department of any kind to have this many former secretaries in one place at one time.

Secretaries Block and Schafer discussed the global market.

BLOCK: The future of agriculture and the opportunities we face, everybody needs to eat. There’s a growing demand for food in the world and hey, that’s what we do. We produce the food so I think we’re in great shape.

SCHAFER: I too believe that the opportunities in agriculture arise in the growth of the global marketplace.

Former secretary and U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said the future of ag will be strong if trade opportunities continue to grow.

YEUTTER: We’ve got to continue to work on exports in a very vigorous way.

Mike Espy feels that there will be a battle fought in the halls of Congress regarding farm programs.

ESPY: They’re really going to have to change and they’re going to have to be made less expensive.

But Dan Glickman summed it all up with a note of optimism.

GLICKMAN: This is an exciting time to look at agriculture as a business opportunity.

During the forum, USDA introduced a short film titled "Secretaries of Agriculture – 30 Leaders, 150 Years," available at http://www.usda.gov/USDA150. That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.