USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins told the annual Ag Outlook Forum that the U.S. farm economy is dire, and she aims to get billions in farm disaster aid out swiftly.
Rollins, whose plane back to Washington, D.C. was grounded, addressed the 101st Ag Outlook Forum virtually.
“The state of our agriculture economy is dire, perhaps one of the worst in the last one hundred years.”
Rollins says the evidence of that is mounting.
“Our trade deficit is set to hit a record $45.5 billion this year. There has been a rapid decline in the number of farms. One in ten farms has disappeared in the last decade. The cost of production is up nearly 30 percent in the past year alone.”
But Rollins says she’s committed to turning things around, starting with disaster aid approved by Congress.
“We’re making great progress in getting the 30 billion dollars in emergency and disaster relief out the door. I know there’ve been a lot of questions about that recently. The last thing producers need is to have to wait again and again and again on the federal government.”
Rollins says USDA is moving at “light speed” to get the aid out and meet or beat Congress’ March 21st deadline.
Rollins also defended President Trump’s tariff policy, but committed to making farmers “whole” against retaliation as it partially did in the first Trump Administration. And she pledged to deal with the ravages of bird flu–pointing to her just announced $1 billion plan of re-population, biosecurity, imports, and vaccine research.
CLICK BELOW to watch highlights of USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins’ address to the Ag Outlook Forum:
Source: NAFB News Service
