President Donald Trump plans to address farm and ranch families from across the nation at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 99th Annual Convention, Jan. 5-10 in Nashville, Tenn.
“The American Farm Bureau Federation is honored to host our nation’s president,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall, a beef and poultry farmer from Georgia. “President Trump has said all along that he would make sure agriculture has a seat at the table when it comes to the top issues facing America’s farmers and ranchers. Now, it is our privilege to reserve a spot for him at our podium.”
Although several presidents have addressed the nation's largest farm organization in the past, the most recent one to do so was President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Duvall considers Trump’s announced speech as a sign of the high regard in which the nation’s chief executive holds America’s farm and ranch families.
“Farmers and ranchers and our rural communities are the bedrock of our nation. President Trump knows that, and his willingness to devote his time to talk directly with Farm Bureau members will be a memorable occasion,” Duvall said.
The speech comes after three consecutive years of decline in farm sector profits, and as farmers and ranchers are increasingly anxious about the president's efforts to renegotiate key trade deals, including the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“President Trump is fully aware of the economic difficulties farmers and ranchers have gone through these past few years,” Duvall said. “The economic issues he has outlined, including reform of our nation’s tax and regulatory systems, match many of the issues on Farm Bureau’s agenda.”
Trump’s executive order establishing the Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity, led by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, highlights the importance his administration places on rural America, according to Duvall.
“President Trump has assigned his team to focus on important pocketbook and quality-of-life issues to strengthen rural America, and those issues are front and center on his to-do list,” Duvall said. “We look forward to hearing the strategies that he and Secretary Perdue share for taking agriculture and rural America down the road toward renewed prosperity.”
For more news, go to: www.Agri-Pulse.com
