News

Addressing persistent poverty

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expanding efforts to address persistent poverty in rural America.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the department’s StrikeForce for Rural Growth and Opportunity initiative is adding four states: Florida, Missouri, Montana and Ohio in 2016.

“Now in 25 states, it was 880 counties that were persistently poor, it’s now 970 counties that will benefit from this effort,” Vilsack said.

While the Secretary says a lot has already been done to address persistent poverty in the U.S., he says more work is needed, especially in rural areas…

“Most American’s think of poverty and they initially of an urban setting,” said Vilsack. “But anyone who has traveled throughout the small towns of this country knows there is indeed persistent poverty in rural areas, in fact, 85% of the counties with the highest and most persistent poverty rates are rural.”

Since StrikeForce was launched in 2010, Vilsack says the USDA and its partners have invested $23 billion dollars in high-poverty areas in rural America, building homes, feeding children, assisting farmers and conserving natural resources.

Audio: Tom Vilsack,  Secretary of Agriculture at Ohio State University, January 15, 2016