(Spencer)– The Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture can now say she has visited the world’s largest county fair.
Ann Veneman addressed an invitation-only crowd at a luncheon Wednesday at the fair. She said the Clay County Fair is a great show case of how agriculture in the U-S is second-to-none in the world.
Veneman said long gone are the days when agriculture simply met the production of food and fiber. Now she says farmers play a valuable role in producing environmentally friendly plastics and sources of energy such as ethanol, bio-diesel and wind energy, among others.
Veneman said she’s very excited for the future of agriculture, saying in the first half of this year crop prices have been strong with livestock prices well above average. And she says they expect record agricultural exports of 62 billion dollars in 2004, with production this year forecast at record or near-record levels for several crops.
(Story from Danielle Hitchings of sister station KDWD Hot 100 in Spencer).
