News - National
USDA chief: Rural America becoming less relevant
Posted: Dec 8, 2012 3:30 PM by Tony Spehar
WASHINGTON (AP) - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has some harsh words for rural America: You're becoming "less and less relevant."
A month that Democrats won the election even as rural parts of the country voted overwhelmingly Republican.
Now Vilsack - a former Democratic governor of Iowa - has told farm belt leaders that he's frustrated with their internal squabbles and says they need to be more strategic in picking their political fights.
In a speech this past week in Washington, he said rural America's biggest assets - the food supply, recreational areas and energy, for example - can be overlooked by people elsewhere as the U.S. population shifts more to cities, their suburbs and exurbs.
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