President Obama ran on an aggressive platform of change in farm and rural policy. Now his administration is tasked with bringing about the renewed attention to rural entrepreneurship, agricultural conservation, and family farming and ranching that he promised during his campaign. His appointee to Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, will lead the effort.

At the Center for Rural Affairs, we believe Secretary Vilsack has the skill and knowledge necessary to execute the president’s plan. We will work with Secretary Vilsack to keep important rural issues at the forefront of upcoming policy debates and to raise the profile of policy issues that concern all of rural America.

That said, we will not miss a single beat in our work to ensure that President Obama and Secretary Vilsack live up to their potential and their promises to rural America.

We won’t quit fighting for one minute for a rural America that offers genuine opportunity to all who live in rural communities, for agricultural policy that supports family farmers and ranchers and protects our environment for future generations, and to ensure that ordinary rural people have a seat at the table and a say in shaping the future of their own communities.

We have great hope that the president and the secretary will fight along side of us, but if they don’t, we will charge on without them, and in opposition to them when necessary.

Change in our farm and rural policy comes from many places. It can come from a president. It can come from a secretary. It can come from Congress. And it can come from you.

At the outset of this new administration and new Congress, we express hope that with (at least some of) these forces working together, we can begin to shift farm and rural policy back in the direction of supporting opportunity for all rural people. It took decades of misguided policy to get us to where we are today. One presidential election and one secretarial appointment are merely dots along the journey in the other direction.

You can join us in that journey. Visit our website where we are collecting signatures and comments to send to Secretary Vilsack. You can sign in support of the priorities we lay out and add a comment about your own vision for rural America. Our goal is 5,000 voices for rural policy change, so we need your help to get there. Visit www.cfra.org/08/grassroots-letter today!

Contact: Brian Depew, briand@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1015 for more information.