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Pompeo shares farmers concern about ag regulation

The former Secretary of State and Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo says it’s partly true that agriculture is not being heard when it comes to forming regulations impacting farmers. He says, “Groups like this, Dairy Strong, the ag community, Kansas Farm Bureau was in my ear constantly, right, so there are places, but there are other places where it’s not true, other states.”

Northeastern Wisconsin dairy farmer Lee Kinnard says he’s concerned regulation might prompt the next generation to leave the farms. “The number one thing I hear again and again and again as to a concern as to why we would maybe steer that next generation away from agriculture is regulation and the fact that it is made in a vacuum and it quite often doesn’t include the voice of agriculture.”

Pompeo says there is a risk of creating bad regulations when stepping away from science and economics. “So whether it’s fighting about intergenerational taxation or how we’re going to regulate waterways in the United States, we need to deal in the reality that says that America is deeply, intrinsically dependent upon a successful agricultural community.”

The former Secretary of State under President Trump fielded questions from farmers during the Dairy Strong conference in Wisconsin Thursday.