Agricultural News
NPPC Backs Perdue For Agriculture Secretary
Thu, 19 Jan 2017 09:23:38 CST
Saving the best for last, President-elect Donald Trump has decided to tap former Georgia Gov. George "Sonny" Perdue as his secretary of agriculture. The National Pork Producers Council hailed the pick the final Trump cabinet post to be filled as "very good for America's farmers and ranchers."
Perdue, who is a veterinarian, was governor of Georgia from 2003 to 2011. Prior to that, he served in the Georgia Senate for 10 years. A part of Trump's agricultural advisory team, Perdue grew up on a row crop farm in central Georgia and owned agricultural businesses.
"Well, we don't have a lot of pork production down in Georgia," said NPPC President John Weber, a pork producer from Dysart, Iowa. "but Sonny Perdue is from a farm family and he's a veterinarian. As head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he'll be very good for America's farmers and ranchers.
"You know, the last guy we had at the head of USDA was from the No. 1 corn, egg and pork producing state in the nation, and that didn't do us much good," he added.
In his two terms as governor, Perdue presided over the state's top-ranked agricultural economy. Georgia is perennially ranked in the top two for producing cotton, eggs, peanuts and poultry and near the top in the production of fruits, including blueberries, cantaloupes, peaches and watermelon. Other top crops include cabbage, sweet corn, onions, bell peppers and tomatoes.
"NPPC believes Sonny Perdue will make a great secretary," Weber said. "He knows farming, he knows exports are vital to U.S. agriculture and he knows you need to run USDA like a business, not like the bureaucracy it's been for the past eight years. We strongly support him, and we urge the Senate to confirm him as the 31st secretary of agriculture."
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
