Donald Trump announces ag advisory committee

Aug 18, 2016

Committee designed to help America’s farmers

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced the members of his agricultural advisory committee.

The committee, made up of 64 members, is designed to provide new ideas to strengthen America’s agricultural industry.

“The members of my agricultural advisory committee represent the best that America can offer to help serve agricultural communities,” Trump said in a release. “Many of these officials have been elected by their communities to solve the issues that impact our rural areas every day. I’m very proud to stand with these men and women, and look forward to serving those who serve all Americans from the White House.”

Members of the committee include:

Gary Black – Commissioner of Agriculture, Georgia
Mike Green – State Senator, Michigan; Appropriations Agriculture Chair; Senate Agriculture Committee Vice Chair
Mike Conaway – House Agriculture Chairman
Sid Miller – Commissioner of Agriculture, Texas
Gary Niemeyer – Former president, National Corn Growers
Mike McCloskey – CEO Fair Oaks Farms
Charlotte Kelly – Tennessee cotton grower
Cindy Hyde-Smith – Commissioner of Agriculture, Mississippi
Ron Heck – Iowa farmer and former president, American Soybean Association

Some members have expressed key areas they would focus on during a Trump presidency.

Trump ag committee
From left: Sid Miller, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Gary Black and Gary Niemeyer are part of Donald Trump's agricultural advisory committee.

“Personally, I’m focused on the over-regulation by the federal government,” Green told MLive.com.

“Of course my emphasis will be carrying Texas for the ag industry for Trump,” Miller told KFYO’s Chad Hasty.

“Obviously an $80 billion-per-year food stamp program has got to be addressed and they’ll need policies on that so I’m presuming that they’ll want to craft one,” Conaway said according to Agri-Pulse. “If they do, I want to make sure they know that our team stands ready to try to make that work.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.