PLAN FOR THE HEARTLAND

President Trump yesterday unveiled his blueprint for spurring rural development and prosperity, and there’s a lot in the plan that farmers can embrace.

Recommendations from the White House Ag and Rural Prosperity Task Force include ones on agricultural labor, trade, broadband access and regulations, which have put a damper on the farm economy.

Much of the task force plan – read its report here – is 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 reasonable approach to applying an animal feed regulation to private mills.