Halpin: USDA is ‘ready to deliver’

President Joe Biden expressed vividly in his State of the Union address that he is counting on Americans to secure the future. As an employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, I know President Biden sees a future of clean energy and regenerative agriculture.

In his speech, President Biden stated, “We’re going to have an infrastructure decade.” We will see historic investments in rural America through the building and repairing of 65,000 miles of roads and 1,500 bridges.

This will mean repairing frequently traveled dirt and gravel roads so that Illinois producers may haul grain and livestock to markets and specialty crop producers can transport their products from their farms to local markets.

Farmers will play a very important role in helping lead this reinvestment throughout rural America.

President Biden’s team through Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s leadership is empowering farmers to encourage using ecosystem services as another source of income for farmers and as economic development for rural communities; reversing concentration in agriculture and food systems; and investing in opportunities for current producers, new farmers and ranchers, and historically underserved individuals.

President Biden speaks often of paying producers for the environmental services needed to help win the ongoing climate crisis battle.

These efforts would save billions of dollars and a countless number of lives through investing in farmers and rural communities; as American producers lead the way in protecting the soil, harvesting clean energy in wind, solar and biofuels; increasing habitat diversity; solving climate crisis and generating many other benefits while expanding rural development.

President Biden is committed to standing with and investing in Americans who can disrupt from the bottom up. That includes both the livestock producers and the small and midsize processors who process these meats.

President Biden knows that America must stand beside farmers and ranchers when their new methods interrupt influential global giants with unlimited deep pockets and almost boundless market power.

President Biden is rewarding innovation and performance-based results for ecosystem services and investing billions to assist farmers and ranchers as they build new markets and break free from global holding.

USDA is empowering producers to provide alternatives to the models that drive the consolidation of land into larger and larger operations.

President Biden believes in all farmers and livestock producers, including those individuals who wish to become part of our communities. He is committed to expanding opportunities to more people interested in realizing the American agricultural dream: big farmers, small farmers, farmers of every ethnicity, landowners, foresters, and immigrant food and farm workers.

This administration is reviving and expanding rural values to embrace new people and ideas as we repopulate our rural communities.

The team I work with in Illinois and across the country is building a new coalition, with current rural Americans, new rural Americans and historically underserved individuals. With new opportunities from ecosystem services and a strong effort to stand up against the powers of consolidation, there can be new opportunities for more people to live, work and play in rural America.

I am proud to serve in the Biden-Harris administration which believes in farmers and rural communities and is taking historic steps to help solve some of the world’s largest problems.

To create a better future, President Biden is counting on producers and rural Americans. Here at the Illinois Farm Service Agency, we are ready to deliver.

Scott Halpin is the state executive director of the Illinois Farm Service Agency.