Tuesday, June 22, 2010

MFU VP represents Farmers Union at summit

Minnesota Farmers Union Vice President Gary Wertish represented the National Farmers Union (NFU) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Summit of Rural America event in Hillsboro, Mo., June 4. The event was a wrap up to the Rural Tour that has been ongoing since the summer of 2009. The objective of both the tour and summit was to gain insight from residents in small towns and collect their thoughts on revitalizing our agricultural nation.

Wertish co-chaired a breakout session on farm competitiveness and market productivity. Breakout sessions focused on providing solutions, ideas and success stories to address the challenges facing rural America. The philosophy behind the sessions was to create a constructive dialogue geared towards sharing success stories instead of reiterating problems or challenges.

“According to USDA statistics, one in twelve jobs in the U.S. are agriculture-related, and as rural residents we know how important we are to the U.S. economy,” said Wertish. “Our messages need to be expressed to the rest of the country and I truly believe that the USDA is on board with being proactive in obtaining the needs of America’s farmers, ranchers and rural residents.”

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