President-elect Biden’s nominee for agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, told leading fruit and vegetable growers during a digital meeting Friday that the new administration is committed to additional stimulus and relief. The two dozen participants also discussed how immigration reform could ease chronic labor shortages, according to a summary of the talk.
“The producers expressed their interest in being part of the solution to climate change,” the summary said. “They discussed the urgent threat of climate change, including on the security of our food supply chain.”
Earlier in the week, Biden’s choice for EPA administrator Michael Regan told farm group leaders that the administration would work closely with producers “to find practical, commonsense solutions to environmental challenges, to create jobs and to expand economic opportunities in rural communities through the Build Back Better plan,” according to a summary of the online meeting.