Vilsack Defends USDA, Says Agency Advocates for Production Agriculture

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is defending his agency against criticism USDA is not defending U.S. agriculture against attacks by EPA and is more supportive of organic agriculture.  Vilsack told producers Friday at Commodity Classic they’ve been actively engaged with EPA on every rule that might impact farmers.   In fact, Vilsack says points out their work with EPA on the RFS-2 resulted in a better final rule for the corn ethanol industry.

However, Past NCGA President Leon Corzine thinks USDA has been slow to defend production agriculture against unfair regulatory proposals, such as the indirect land use change language.  Corzine told Vilsack this during a meeting in Washington after the USDA Outlook Forum about the growing criticism by farmers that the agency doesn’t support traditional agriculture anymore.  

The Secretary told Corzine he’s frustrated that even though the agency has been doing all it can for production agriculture the mainstream media reports on very little of it.