If you could go back to April 2017, Sonny Perdue's first day as Ag Secretary. You would have heard him telling USDA employees.

"My vision for the department of agriculture is to be the best managed, the best regarded agency in this country."

Fast forward almost four years, Perdue said this week he's hopeful he and his staff have lived up to that mission. Perdue in a pre-recorded message to during the American Farm Bureau's recent virtual convention Perdue described the nation's farmers as," Great patriots who selflessly commit their lives to feed and clothe their fellow citizens."

And he said they need to be free to innovate and use the latest science to produce more, but also, "we need more markets abroad to sell the abundance of American Agriculture This means more trade deals, like the USMCA and holding China to their trading commitments."

Perdue said the United State should set its sights on emerging markets such as SE Asia and Africa. 

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