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Secretary Vilsack Says Man-Made Risks Are Threat To Agriculture
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FEATURE – SECRETARY VILSACK SAYS MAN-MADE RISKS ARE THREAT TO U.S. AGRICULTURE
INTRO: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told USDA’s annual Agricultural Outlook Forum that many of the risks faced today by U-S agriculture are man-made. The USDA’s Bob Ellison has more. (2:08)
AGRICULTURE SECRETARY TOM VILSACK SAYS MAN-MADE RISKS ARE AFFECTING U-S AGRICULTURE AND NEED TO BE ADDRESSED BY CONGRESS. SPEAKING TO THE ANNUAL AGRICULTURAL OUTLOOK FORUM HELD NEAR WASHINGTON D-C, VILSACK SAID THE CURRENT BUDGET CRISIS AND IMPENDING SEQUESTER ARE MAJOR YET RESOLVABLE THREATS.
Tom Vilsack, Agriculture Secretary: March one will come and if it comes before Congress has acted the sequester will be triggered and what that will mean for USDA is every line-item, virtually every line-item, of our budget will have to be reduced by a certain percentage. And that percentage could be somewhere in the neighborhood of five to six percent. The only way we can absorb a cut of this magnitude is by impacting the people who work in the food safety area of USDA. It doesn’t just impact those workers it impacts all of the processing facilities and plants and production facilities across the country. Congress could give us flexibility and say we didn’t really mean every line-item across the board, or they could come up with a larger deficit reduction package that would avoid sequester.
VILSACK SAID ANOTHER MAN-MADE RISK FACED BY AGRICULTURE IS THE LACK OF A NEW FARM BILL, WHICH HE SAID IS A POTENTIAL DRAG ON THE FARM ECONOMY.
Vilsack: And that now creates uncertainty as to what the safety net will be for farmers who are faced with the drought, who where through no fault of theirs they are facing economic disaster and so they now face a financial risk that is man-made.
VILSACK ALSO CALLED A LACK OF IMMIGRANT LABOR A MAJOR YET RESOLVABLE RISK FACED BY U-S AGRICULTURE.
Vilsack: This is a risk to agriculture and we are beginning to see the implications of that risk because we’ve had crops that were grown last year that could not be harvested because there simply weren’t enough hands to pick them. It’s important and necessary that we have immigration reform that creates a comprehensive set of reforms that secures our border and then creates an opportunity for these folks to be here legitimately.
FOR THE U-S DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE I’M BOB ELLISON.
