NPPC Backs Efforts To Revitalize Rural America

Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Farm Bureau Federation in Nashville, the president revealed recommendations from his Ag and Rural Prosperity Task Force, including ones addressing the agricultural labor shortage, expanded broadband access for rural areas and regulations that have put a damper on the farm economy.

“Addressing workforce issues and federal rules and maintaining export markets, coupled with the recently approved tax cuts, will help revitalize rural America,” said NPPC President Ken Maschhoff, a pork producer from Carlyle, Ill. “President Trump, Agriculture Secretary Perdue and the team at the White House National Economic Council are to be commended for putting together a plan that will aid farmers and ranchers.”

The task force recommendations are in line with the priorities of the U.S. pork industry, which has been urging the administration to ease the regulatory burden on agriculture and business, to reform the U.S. visa system to make it easier to hire foreign workers and to maintain access to important export markets, including Canada, Mexico and South Korea.

The White House already has taken steps to help the heartland, announcing last June that it would rescind the Waters of the United States rule, which would have given the government broad jurisdiction over waters and lands; abandoning a proposal related to the buying and selling of livestock; and indicating last week that it would take a more-reasoned approach to applying an animal feed regulation to private mills.

“This administration recognizes that rural America plays a vital role in the U.S. economy and, importantly, in ensuring our food security, and it’s working to bolster the farm economy,” Maschhoff said. “It is taking actions that will allow us to do what we do best: produce the safest, most nutritious and most abundant food at the lowest cost in the world.”

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NPPC is the global voice for the U.S. pork industry, protecting the livelihoods of America’s 60,000 pork producers, who abide by ethical principles in caring for their animals, in protecting the environment and public health and in providing safe, wholesome, nutritious pork products to consumers worldwide. For more information, visit www.nppc.org.