Perdue's Final Days Pt 3
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Sonny Perdue will soon be out of a job, with the new Administration preparing to take over. His four years leading the USDA is something he feels went well given the unprecedented challenges of the past year.
Perdue feels good about how farmers have handled themselves during the pandemic, but moving forward as an industry leaves him feeling especially good …
PERDUE … “And that’s what thrills me. I not only saw it in the older farm generation, I saw it in the young people with the future of technology and an understanding of how technology can make us go even further to feed this world’s hungry.”
Perdue says the next generation is well prepared to lead the way …
PERDUE … “I think the transparency young people bring to the process. My generation of farmers, we were just trained to stay behind the farm gate and just do a good job and not talk about it. We can no longer afford to do that. We’ve got to talk about what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, how we’re growing the food, what’s in it, why it’s nutritious and healthy, those kinds of things.”
The new technology, Perdue says is in their wheel-house …
PERDUE … “So, this younger generation is more akin to, obviously, social media, but I think they’re also better communicators than my generation of farmers have been in that way. So, I think the future is bright. I’m very hopeful. There’s some amazing young people out there that are going to do some amazing things that we can’t even think about now.”
Perdue says America is going to be in great hands with resiliency industry wide allowing us to continue leading the world’s food suppliers.
