As a part of a multi-state tour, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue will visit the Indiana State Fair on Tuesday. After spending the weekend in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois, the Secretary will arrive on the State Fairgrounds on Tuesday. First, he will be given a tour of the fairgrounds by Indiana Senator Todd Young. Perdue will then hold a closed door. listening session with Governor Holcomb, Lt. Governor Crouch, and other top Indiana ag leaders at the Normandy Barn. The purpose of the session has been listed as a Farm Bill listening session. Perdue will then meet with the ag media, including Hoosier Ag Today.
The Midwest swing is being billed by USDA as the Back to our Roots Tour. “The ‘Back to our Roots’ Farm Bill and rural prosperity RV listening tour will allow us to hear directly from people in agriculture across the country, as well as our consumers – they are the ones on the front lines of American agriculture and they know best what the current issues are,” Perdue said. “USDA will be intimately involved as Congress deliberates and formulates the 2018 Farm Bill. We are committed to making the resources and the research available so that Congress can make good facts-based, data-driven decisions. It’s important to look at past practices to see what has worked and what has not worked, so that we create a farm bill for the future that will be embraced by American agriculture in 2018.”
On Monday, the Secretary will make several stops in IL to get feedback on Farm Bill and other key policy issues. During his Wisconsin tour, Perdue was joined by House Speaker Paul Ryan, who will play a key role in when the Farm Bill comes to the floor for consideration.