NCGA Welcomes Governor Perdue to Lead USDA

The National Corn Growers Association says the incoming Donald Trump administrations pick for Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue should be a welcome voice for agriculture. Perdue has extensive ties to the agriculture industry. NCGA Executive Vice President John Doggett says Perdue will understand the issues farmers face, like trade.
Doggett: “The thing we hear over and over again from our membership is, ‘Let’s expand the opportunity to sell our product overseas. Trade is important to all of agriculture and is particularly important to the corn industry. We need to move a lot of corn and we need to move it out of the United States because most of our customers exist outside of the United States and we really need an opportunity to expand those markets.”
Doggett says Perdue should be a good advocate for agriculture
Doggett: “There has been some discussion about a Southerner being at the helm of USDA. We are more interested in how well the Secretary listens and how well the secretary advocates for agriculture and explains agriculture to the rest of the nation. That is something that Tom Vilsack did very very well and other secretaries before him. We have no reason to doubt that Mr. Perdue wouldn’t be every bit as good at that and we look forward to helping him be a great success.”