National Pork Producers Council Calls New Secretary Of Ag Sonny Perdue "Very Good" For Farmers

Apr 25, 2017

Calling him “very good for America’s farmers and ranchers,” the National Pork Producers Council congratulated former Georgia Gov. George “Sonny” Perdue on his confirmation today by the U.S. Senate as the new Secretary of Agriculture.

“Sonny Perdue is the kind of leader the pork industry, and the entire livestock industry, needs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” said NPPC President Ken Maschhoff, a pork producer from Carlyle, Ill. “He’ll be very good for America’s farmers and ranchers.”

At his March 23 confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Perdue pledged to be a “tenacious” advocate for agriculture. “Agriculture needs a strong advocate,” he told the committee. He also vowed to work with the administration “to establish a strong trade policy that benefits agriculture” and to identify unintended consequences of regulations and address them “before they create challenges for agriculture.”

A veterinarian and agri-businessman who grew up on a dairy and row crop farm in central Georgia, Perdue served as the state’s governor from 2003 to 2011. Prior to that, he was in the Georgia Senate for 10 years.

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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.