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I grew up in a city. My parents would think there was something wrong with America if they knew I was secretary of agriculture.

Tom Vilsack

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Tom Vilsack
Age: 74
Born: 1950
Born: December 13
Lawyer
Politician
United States Secretary Of Agriculture
Pittsburg
Pennsylvania
Thomas James Vilsack
Thomas James Tom Vilsack
Wrong
Agriculture
America
Secretary
Something
City
Would
Parents
Think
Grew
Thinking
Cities
Knew
Parent

More quotes by Tom Vilsack

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It's how you make decisions that matters, and that ought to be the question that people ask of any candidate for any executive office, whether it's mayor, governor or president. How do you make decisions? Who do you want in the room helping you make those decisions?
Tom Vilsack
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There is more potential for economic growth in rural America than at any time in decades.
Tom Vilsack
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I think people have to remember where we were in 2009. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month. We had an unemployment rate in double digits. We had poverty rates soaring. We had kids who were food insecure. Today in 2016, we have a lot less unemployment, a lot less poverty, and a lot fewer kids who are food insecure.
Tom Vilsack
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The lack of access to proper nutrition is not only fueling obesity, it is leading to food insecurity and hunger among our children.
Tom Vilsack
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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.
Tom Vilsack
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To help producers serve larger institutional customers like schools and hospitals, USDA has helped fund new regional infrastructure like cold storage warehouses, commercial kitchens and local slaughter facilities.
Tom Vilsack
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The future of healthcare security should include flexibility from the federal government to allow us to serve the state's most vulnerable citizens.
Tom Vilsack
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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.
Tom Vilsack
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I can't give you a specific number today, in large part because the analysis upon which we would make that determination has not been completed. . . . I think it is fair to say there may be additional costs associated with a farming operation, but it is very difficult to quantify.
Tom Vilsack
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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.
Tom Vilsack
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Somewhere between 50 to 60 percent of the food you eat has been touched by immigrant hands, and it is fair to say some of them are not here as they should be here. But if you didn't have these folks, you would be spending a lot more - three, four or five times more - for food, or we would have to import food and have all the food security risks.
Tom Vilsack
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Food during my early years was a very difficult issue for me. I grew up in an addictive family. My mother had serious problems with alcohol and prescription drugs. I was an overweight kid. I can remember back in those days there weren't the strategies that there are today to deal with those issues.
Tom Vilsack
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Strong communities ... embrace change. New discoveries require us to think differently and approach things differently, to think anew.
Tom Vilsack
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What Republicans have done in my view is that they are systematically dismantling a sense of community in America.
Tom Vilsack
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During a national crisis, we as a nation become a single community and no one should take advantage of a crisis.
Tom Vilsack
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We have a long tradition in this state of caring for our neighbors - it is truly an Iowa value.
Tom Vilsack
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More than half of America's rural counties are losing population and with it, political representation.
Tom Vilsack
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If we can get people to focus on fruits and vegetables and more healthy foods, we'll be better in terms of our healthcare situation.
Tom Vilsack
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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.
Tom Vilsack
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Food is a fairly significant aspect of my life. I have struggled mightily with food. With my weight. And I'm conscious of it. So I have a sensitivity to people who struggle with their weight.
Tom Vilsack