Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue made an appearance during the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) virtual annual convention last week. Among the topics discussed was rural access to broadband, something he noted is another vital issue that USDA is working on.
“It’s vital. It’s no longer a luxury. When we first began, after the day I was sworn in, President Trump signed an executive order on rural prosperity, and as we studied that with other agencies, connectivity is one of the things we came up with that could help rural America, including farms and farmsteads. It’s no longer acceptable for 20% of the nation is cut out of the connectivity of electronic commerce. That’s just not acceptable.”
Perdue notes that more broadband access is critical for rural America in many ways.
“The Re-Connect Programs that the president has directed us, and Congress funded to get connectivity out here with broadband literally to farmsteads. Precision agriculture, E-commerce, farmers are great entrepreneurs. They can market themselves all over the world if they have a connection. Certainly, COVID has shown us with distance learning, what are the country kids going to do when school is not in session? How are they going to learn if they can’t be connected?”
Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue spoke with NAFB President Rita Frazier at the NAFB virtual annual convention.
(From the National Association of Farm Broadcasters)