USDA Listening Tour

US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Senator Richard Burr and Congressman Larry Kissell were in Hamlet, NC (Richmond County) to talk with interested people in the community. I attended this meeting and it was great to hear what these folks had to say about agriculture, rural America, education and the future of our nation.

Here is a snapshot of what was talked about on Tuesday:

- The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) brings in $1.84 for every $1 expended
- Know Your Farmer Know Your Food program - looking at purchasing more local goods and offering more than just farmer's markets to keep wealth in the community in which it was produced
- Farm to School program - asked for $1 billion for breakfast and lunch programs, important to link the producer to the customer, free or reduced breakfast and lunches must be easier to access so that students don't feel stigmatized, grants funded by stimulus money helped remodel kitchens to help accommodate this program
- The budget for forestry should be split into two so that fighting forest fires doesn't take up so much of the budget, should be split into maintenance & fire fighting


- North Carolina is an education leader and many ideas used in the state will be models for federal programs
- Community colleges are a hidden treasure and there must be more focus on this area of education
- Green jobs must be part of the next generation of jobs and community colleges can prepare folks for these jobs
- it's important to reform education delivery because one size fits all doesn't work (hand-held devices which held all textbook information could be in our future)


- Opportunities for Regional Economic Development - USDA is looking at improving rural areas through regional efforts v. individual grants, if a coalition of interested parties envisioned a way in which to fundamentally improve an area they want to know

CEO says "no" to the dough.

Bill Cooper, CEO of TCF Bank in Minnesota, has spoken up. He said "No thanks." to the bailout money that the federal government offered his bank. TCF Bank wants to return the $361 million it received about 4 months ago. Cooper stated that TCF hadn't engaged in subprime lending and many other practices that caused so many institutions to fail. They have enough funds to sustain their operations and don't need the money that they were offered. Not to mention, the strings that are attached to taking TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) funds. He stated that Congress did bit of a bait & switch - placing restrictions on dividends, employee bonuses and executive compensation. Compensation cannot exceed $400,000 which causes a problem, he says, for executives who work on commission. Accepting these funds simply wasn't good business for TCF.

This morning, on the news, Cooper summed up his thoughts on such funds by stating that taking money from the federal government is like borrowing money from your mother-in-law. Eventually, she's going to want to paint your bedroom.