Tom Vilsack Quotes - 9quotes.com

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People don't understand rural America. Sixteen percent of our population is rural, but 40 percent of our military is rural. I don't believe that's because of a lack of opportunity in rural America. I believe that's because if you grow up in rural America, you know you can't just keep taking from the land. You've got to give something back.
Written by Tom Vilsack
If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it.
Written by Tom Vilsack
When you've paid your debt to society, you need to be reconnected and re-engaged in society.
Written by Tom Vilsack
I don't think the face of the Democratic Party is Nancy Pelosi.
Written by Tom Vilsack
Many young and beginning farmers start out in local markets. Some stay there, and some scale up.
Written by Tom Vilsack
In 2011, agricultural exports hit a record high and producers saw their best incomes in nearly 40 years.
Written by Tom Vilsack
Local and regional food systems are about opportunity.
Written by Tom Vilsack
Although they are some of the hardest working folks I know, rural Americans earn, on average, $11,000 less than their urban counterparts each year. And they are more likely to live in poverty.
Written by Tom Vilsack
In the past 40 years, the United States lost more than a million farmers and ranchers. Many of our farmers are aging. Today, only nine percent of family farm income comes from farming, and more and more of our farmers are looking elsewhere for their primary source of income.
Written by Tom Vilsack
There is more potential for economic growth in rural America than at any time in decades.
Written by Tom Vilsack
Proper school nutrition must be complemented by activities outside of the cafeteria. The decisions parents make to keep their kids healthy are critical in fighting this battle on the home front.
Written by Tom Vilsack
We're going to move from a commodity economy where you basically grow the same kind of crops - where a kernel of corn is a kernel of corn is a kernel of corn - to an ingredient economy where there will be a kernel of corn that will be designed for fuel, there will be a kernel of corn designed for livestock.
Written by Tom Vilsack
There are a lot of farmers and ranchers who are struggling. I get on my knees every day. If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it.
Written by Tom Vilsack
Every dollar of SNAP benefits generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity. If people are able to buy a little more in the grocery store, someone has to stock it, package it, shelve it, process it, ship it. All of those are jobs. It's the most direct stimulus you can get in the economy during these tough times.
Written by Tom Vilsack
One out of every 12 jobs in the economy is connected in some way, shape or form to what happens on the farm.
Written by Tom Vilsack
What Republicans have done in my view is that they are systematically dismantling a sense of community in America.
Written by Tom Vilsack
Democrats have always historically referred to our families as working families, and I have sort of changed that moniker. I think what we have is a nation of worried families - families that are concerned about job security, families who thought their pensions were secure and now have questions.
Written by Tom Vilsack
I think we all share the same goal, which is a United States of America that inspires people and leads.
Written by Tom Vilsack
I don't know of a Democrat - whether they're a conservative, a centrist or a liberal Democrat - that doesn't think that it's important to have quality jobs that pay decent wages so that families can support themselves, so that they can have the dignity of being able to afford health care, put money aside for pension, buy a home.
Written by Tom Vilsack
I don't know if there is a Democrat who necessarily doesn't believe health care is a right instead of privilege. There is a significant between us and the Republican Party on that issue.
Written by Tom Vilsack
You know, rural Americans are a special people. Their labor puts food on our table and fuel in our gas tanks. Their service in our military sets a powerful example of leadership, honor and sacrifice. Their spirit of community inspires us all.
Written by Tom Vilsack
President Obama's fight for rural America is personal. He was raised by a single mom and grandparents from Kansas. He hails from a farming state, Illinois.
Written by Tom Vilsack
Today, President Obama is making smart investments in clean energy - wind, solar, biofuels - as part of an all-of-the-above energy strategy that supports thousands of jobs, not in the Middle East, but in the Midwest.
Written by Tom Vilsack
Rural Americans want leaders who help middle-class communities to plan and prosper over the long-term - not opportunists who reap the rewards for themselves, leaving nothing for the people who do the sowing.
Written by Tom Vilsack
Sixteen percent of our population is rural, but 40 percent of our military is rural. I don't believe that's because of a lack of opportunity in rural America. I believe that's because if you grow up in rural America, you know you can't just keep taking from the land. You've got to give something back.
Written by Tom Vilsack
And sometimes people don't realize that 90 percent of the persistent poverty counties are located in rural America.
Written by Tom Vilsack
But It doesn't make sense for us to have a continued reliance on a supply of oil where whenever there is unrest in another part of the world, gasoline prices jump up. We need a renewable fuel industry that's more than corn-based, of course, and there are a whole series of great opportunities here.
Written by Tom Vilsack
I grew up in a city. My parents would think there was something wrong with America if they knew I was secretary of agriculture.
Written by Tom Vilsack
I wish I could give you all the examples over the last two years as secretary of agriculture, where I hear people in rural America constantly being criticized, without any expression of appreciation for what they do do.
Written by Tom Vilsack
Let us build a 21st-century rural economy of cutting-edge companies and technologies that lead us to energy and food security. Such an investment will revitalize rural America, re-establish our moral leadership on climate security and eliminate our addiction to foreign oil.
Written by Tom Vilsack

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