National Ag News

Some aggies this week are running around with their hair on fire because Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is reorganizing USDA to find room for a new undersecretary for trade, and the cost of that move is elimination of a formal undersecretary for rural affairs.  The fear is that Perdue, as mouthpiece for the White House, is giving short shrift to all things rural.

This might make some sense if the ag secretary wasn’t Perdue with his small town Georgia roots and publicly promised personal priority on rural issues, had not the president by executive order created on April 25, The Task Force on Agriculture & Rural Prosperity with Perdue sitting as chair of the intergovernmental endeavor, and had Perdue not chosen Anne Hazlett as his special assistant for rural affairs.

Continue reading Perdue “elevates” rural affairs at Brownfield Ag News.