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State ag leaders to discuss priority issues at NASDA Winter Policy Conference
State commissioners, secretaries, and directors of agriculture from across the country are meeting this week to discuss ag and food policy issues.
National Association of State Departments of Agriculture Second Vice President Bruce Kettler, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, says it’s critical to meet with counterparts and hear about issues impacting their states.
“It’s about perspective to me. I gain the perspective of somebody on the west coast or east coast, for example, in addition to what we see here in the Midwest. In my role as director of ISDA, I’ve learned how diverse Indiana is when it comes to agriculture. Through NASDA, I’ve learned the things that make other state agriculture industries unique,” he says. “The benefit of what NASDA does is that it allows people to show those differences in agriculture, share the differences about how policy affects them, and it doesn’t tend to focus so much on certain crops or certain livestock sectors.”
He says the organization takes a broader approach to tackling policy issues that impact states across the country.
“Climate is an example of something NASDA in the last two years has engaged much more deeply on because we want to make sure agirulcutre is at the table for those discussions,” he says. “If there are regulations coming out for anything, not just climate, we want to make sure we’re at the table to be able to share our story about farming and agirulcutre and what it does for the country and economies
The NASDA Winter Policy Conference concludes Wednesday.