This week President Obama released a proclamation celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Department of Agriculture. He wrote:

The USDA has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the American people for generations. During the Great Depression, the Department helped bring an end to the Dust Bowl by promoting soil conservation. Through two World Wars, the Victory Garden Program fed troops and families around the world. The USDA worked to bring electric power to rural communities, establish the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance and School Lunch Programs, implement our nation's food safety regulations, and protect our forests and private lands. For one-and-a-half centuries, USDA has empowered communities across our country and helped ensure we leave our children a future rich with promise and possibility.

Read the entire proclamation here.

As a native of Missouri I know how important agriculture is to our society. This is why I was so glad to see U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack sit down with Judy Woodruff to talk about the great work the Obama Administration and the US Department of Agriculture are doing.

Highlighted in the article is the fact that agriculture is the second most productive sector of the US economy with farm exports helping to support 1.15 million jobs here in the US and farm unemployment dropping faster than most jobs that require specialties.

Also highlighted are the 456,000 home loans the Department of Agriculture helped arrange over the past three years with Vilsack saying “it’s our mission to do this; we’ve been working hard to improve the quality of life for people living in rural areas.”

These investments in agriculture continue with President Obama’s 2013 Budget calling for such things as a 23% increase in funding for DOA’s competitive grants program; an increase in the record number of acres of working land in conservation programs; and maintaining a strong safety net to ensure one bad crop won’t put farmers out of business. These programs help ensure the continued success of farming and the many businesses built around it that are so important to the great state of Missouri and this country.

Click here to read Judy Woodruff’s article and here to read Secretary Vilsack’s statement about President Obama’s 2013 Budget and its benefits to farmers.