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Perdue discusses issues facing the ag industry during Purdue visit

It’s Ag Week at Purdue University and Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue joined Purdue President Mitch Daniels in discussing issues facing the industry.

Perdue says trade is a top issue because the industry depends on it.

“When you have a sector of your industry that is so productive that you have to depend on pushing that out across the world- it’s a blessing on one hand that we don’t have to depend on other countries for food, but we’re depending on them for economic vitality,” he says.   

He says feeding a growing population is always top of mind and innovation and technology will be critical in meeting that need.

“We’ve got non transgenic gene editing now and all that does is expediate what can happen naturally in a breeding technique and to do that there’s some amazing exponential type of productivity that will help us feed 9 billion people,” he says.

Perdue says the conversation surrounding climate change and agriculture’s role in improving it can also be challenging.

“I think farmers are adapting- the best farmers are the ones that adapt to the varying degrees of weather for cover crops, soil and nutrient management, and water management,” he says.

Perdue spoke this morning at Purdue University.