By KRISS NELSON

editor@farm-news.com

After just a short eight days on the job as USDA Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack was the keynote speaker during the close of the general session of the virtually held 2021 Commodity Classic last Friday.

During his session, Vilsack spoke on what he hopes the administration’s focus will be over the course of the next four years and that is markets: more markets, better markets, newer markets and fair markets.

More markets

When it comes to more markets, Vilsack said he is talking trade.

“We need to continue to focus on providing a greater presence for U.S. products in the markets,” he said. “Presence means more people on the ground in those markets, more partnerships with institutions and universities to have a better understanding of what each market requires and more promotions so the U.S. brand is well known and well accepted and well received in the markets.”

More markets also means the enforcements of trade agreements, Vilsack said that have already been entered into and enforced. Specifically, he said the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) Agreement.

Vilsack said he has recently had the opportunity to speak with the Administer of Agriculture in Canada where he said he talked on the wheat and dairy market; as well as the Secretary of Agriculture from Mexico where he said he expressed concern with Mexico’s attitude about genetically engineered crops and the importance of those crops getting into their market without barriers.

More markets, Vilsack said also revolves around new trade agreements.

“I am pleased with the fact we have taken a step in the Biden-Harris administration to send a signal to the UK and the EU of potential opportunity for us to negotiate with the relaxation of the various tariffs that have currently been placed,” he said. “Maybe that gives us an opportunity to have a conversation about trade agreements in both the UK and the EU. Maybe it gives us an opportunity to open the door with the understanding any trade agreement must include open access to our agricultural products in order for it to be successful.”

There can’t be a conversation about U.S. agricultural trade without talking about China and the phase one agreement.

“Certainly it is important and necessary for us to continue to see that relationship provide the purchases that we have recently seen,” said Vilsack. “Reality is, our China relationship is complex.”

A complicated relationship, Vilsack added, on any given day could have a negative impact on trade. Due to those complexities, Vilsack and USDA are asking to be engaged in conversations within the national security to make sure any decisions being made that could have an impact on agriculture are well understood.

“I have continued to make the case that agriculture needs to be more engaged and more involved and more connected to those conversations,” he said.

Better markets

By better markets, Vilsack said he means more open and transparent markets.

“There is a lot of concern about consolodation in agriculture in a variety of areas,” he said. “We are going to do what we can in USDA to make sure we have adequate price discovery. That we strengthen rules for a more competitive environment to make sure farmers are treated fairly in the market and to the extent that if there are issues relative to unfair activities that we are going to be a department that supports farmers and works for farmers and enforces fair trade and fair trade opportunities and open markets and fairer markets.”

Vilsack said USDA is going to highlight where competitive markets are working well within the U.S. and make sure people understand what a competitive market looks like.

There are also hopes to invest in more processing facilities.

“We need to make sure our markets are far more resilient,” he said. “Investing in additional processing facilities will allow us to have more competitive markets.”

Newer markets

Newer markets, Vilsack said will bring a focus on climate and the ability to create new opportunities for farmers to profit by sequestering carbon.

“We need to be investing and supporting and provide incentives and encouragement for farmers to continue to embrace practices that they are already embracing from cover crops to crop diversity to rotational grazing and other practices that we know will have a positive impact on soil health and water quality,” Vilsack said. “By investing in those practices, we are also doing right by the environment and we are also going to do right by climate and creating opportunity by perhaps a carbon bank of sorts that will be focused and designed specifically to benefit farmers.”

Currently, Vilsack said there are about 138 million carbon credits throughout various markets with about only 2.5 million credits focused on agriculture because those systems are not designed to benefit farmers.

“If we are going to get in this business of incentivizing and providing new revenue streams for carbon sequestration, we have to create and design and implement programs in a way it benefits farmers,” he said. “It is farmers who are going to be sequestering the carbon. It is the farmers who are going to provide some of the early wins in an effort in climate. We will be focused at USDA to best to structure a program that creates that new revenue stream that supports the conservation program that already exists to create new opportunities for farmers.”

Vilsack said they are also going to look at how agricultural waste can be converted into a variety of new products.

“We have history of this in terms of the renewable fuels industry, but I think we can expand significantly beyond that,” he said. “I know that there are ways in which manure, for example, in dairy operations can be converted into a number of different products that can create new revenue streams for farmers and basically reduce the carbon footprint and emission footprint of a dairy operation.”

Vilsack said he feels we can reach the president’s goal of zero emission agriculture by 2050 by embracing those new opportunities to convert agricultural waste.

“It creates a new revenue opportunity for farmers and will also create more manufacturing and processing jobs in rural towns across America. The Department of Agriculture needs to be engaged in making sure that is part of our future.”

Fair markets

When it comes to fair markets, Vilsack said he is talking about addressing the equality issues the Department of Agriculture has had for quite some time.

“We have dealt with individual acts of discrimination at the department from time to time,” he said. “What hasn’t happened, we have not been able to address the cumulative effect of discrimination over many, many decades and the fact it has put some farmers significantly behind their counterparts.”

Vilsack said they will be spending time at USDA to essentially create greater equality by providing better opportunities for disadvantage farmers who have struggled.

“This is going to take an opportunity for us to really review deeply and comprehensibly the various programs at USDA in a way that will allow us to identify barriers that has systemic racism that have prevented full participation in our programs,” he said. “We are committed to this; we think that is the right thing to do.”

Vilsack feels this will ultimately provide an opportunity for expansion of the number of farmers in the United States.

“We are obviously concerned about making sure that we keep people on the land and keep people on the farm and one additional way besides more markets and better markets and new markets is to make sure we have a fair system,” he said.