Tom Vilsack Quotes
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Strong communities ... embrace change. New discoveries require us to think differently and approach things differently, to think anew.
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There are children with dreams counting on us.
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In the past 40 years, the United States lost more than a million farmers and ranchers. Many of our farmers are aging. Today, only nine percent of family farm income comes from farming, and more and more of our farmers are looking elsewhere for their primary source of income.
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My friends, history, history calls us to this time and to this place. A solemn choice rests with us - where do we go from here? Do we move slowly and incrementally? Or do we seize the challenge of our time and tackle the great issues of our day.
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The rural economy is significantly better. Our natural resources, particularly our working lands, are more resilient. And more money is being invested in soil conservation and water preservation. Our forests will be in better shape if Congress does what it needs to do to fix the fire-suppression budget.
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To keep farmers on the farm we must maintain a strong farm safety net, but we will also have to build a thriving companion economy to compliment production agriculture in rural America.
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The future of healthcare security should include flexibility from the federal government to allow us to serve the state's most vulnerable citizens.
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More than half of America's rural counties are losing population and with it, political representation.
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The rise of childhood obesity has placed the health of an entire generation at risk.
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If we are to transition to a new economy and to lead it, we must start by transforming our schools.
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Hillary Clinton was in rural America during the Iowa caucuses, but I think the nature of a campaign makes it more difficult once you become the candidate. There's a messaging opportunity here throughout, not just in the election season, but before the election, the opportunity to underscore what government is doing in a positive way in partnership with rural folks. I think it's a messaging issue. It's being there physically, talking to folks, listening to people, respecting and admiring what they do, and then making sure that they understand precisely what the partnership is.
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I think the Iraqis themselves will have to make a determination as to what type of government they ultimately come up with and what kind of nation they ultimately come up with. But they can continually use America's troops presence. The problem is not going to change until they are confronted with the reality that they have to make decisions and they have to make them themselves. They have to decide whether they want a country, whether they're willing to put their lives on the line and sacrifice for a national interest as opposed to a regional or sectarian interest.
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In his first year in office, President Obama pulled us back from the brink of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and worked to lay a new foundation for economic growth. The president identified three key strategies to build that lasting prosperity: innovation, investment, and education.
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We have a long tradition in this state of caring for our neighbors - it is truly an Iowa value.
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President Obama's fight for rural America is personal. He was raised by a single mom and grandparents from Kansas. He hails from a farming state, Illinois.
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There are a lot of farmers and ranchers who are struggling. I get on my knees every day. If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it.
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I wish I could give you all the examples over the last two years as secretary of agriculture, where I hear people in rural America constantly being criticized, without any expression of appreciation for what they do do.
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One out of every 12 jobs in the economy is connected in some way, shape or form to what happens on the farm.
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I would say that, from an agricultural perspective, I have a little bit of concern, because some of the folks I don't know are particularly supportive of the renewable fuel industry and the renewable fuel standard, which is a big part of certainly Midwestern agriculture. I'm hopeful that, when we see his ultimate selection for ag secretary, that we will see someone who is a strong advocate for renewable fuels, and what that means to Midwestern producers. And, for that matter, now, all over the country, we're seeing more and more of the biofuels being produced from a variety of sources.
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I think we all share the same goal, which is a United States of America that inspires people and leads.
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In 2011, agricultural exports hit a record high and producers saw their best incomes in nearly 40 years.
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Now our job, our duty, our responsibility to ensure the safety and security of our citizens cannot be complete unless we guarantee health care security for our citizens.
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I think the Democrats have - we really have failed to be in rural America, in the sense of having our leaders spending time talking to folks in rural America. The president Barack Obama has been there, but other than the president and vice president, we have had not a whole lot of conversation in rural America.
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I think people have to remember where we were in 2009. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month. We had an unemployment rate in double digits. We had poverty rates soaring. We had kids who were food insecure. Today in 2016, we have a lot less unemployment, a lot less poverty, and a lot fewer kids who are food insecure.