WASHINGTON, August 2, 2017- Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue this week kicks off a “Back to Our Roots” RV tour of five Midwest states designed to gather input for the 2018 farm bill. His first stop, on Thursday, will be at the Wisconsin State Fair, where he’ll participate in opening ceremonies with Gov. Scott Walker and hold a farm bill listening session with Wisconsin Ag Secretary Ben Brancel. Perdue will also make stops in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, and wrap up the RV tour in Indiana on Aug. 8, where he’ll visit the Indiana State Fair and hold another listening session.
He’s also planning to attend USDA night at a Minnesota Twins baseball game and stop by the Indianapolis Colts training camp. Perdue says the 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.” He added that USDA will be “intimately involved” as Congress moves forward with the farm bill. USDA says Perdue will be taking a second RV tour later this summer.
You can keep up with the secretary’s journey on Twitter by following him @SecretarySonny or by searching for the #BackToOurRoots hashtag. For the complete itinerary of the Back to Our Roots tour, click here.