Farm broadcaster, mentor, and friend Orion Samuelson of Scottsdale, Az and WGN, Chicago, Il., sat down recently with the United States of America’s Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue in his office for 90 minutes to do something he has done annually at the end of the year for more than 40 years. Orion interviewed the current Secretary for a look back at the year just ending and a look ahead to the year about to begin.

Harry – at the end of the year you always sit down with the Secretary of Ag, I saw that in your latest Samuelson Sez, and with Sonny Perdue, what sense did you get when you sat down with him this year?

Orion – Well, I got a sense of a Secretary of Agriculture who knows and understands the challenge of farming and ranching. I got a sense of somebody who knows what’s going on. I mean, you could ask him the price of corn at the moment and he would be able to quote it. I have described him as a good, old, down-home boy, great personality, always smiling, but he knows what’s going on in agriculture, and I think he knows how to deal as well with President Trump as anybody in the current administration. He was very optimistic about getting a NAFTA agreement that would benefit farmers in the US, Canada and Mexico because he said if it’s an agreement that benefits only one, then it’s not going to last.

Orion – He thinks we’ll get a farm bill on schedule, which we have to have that by I think it’s the 30th of September 2018 to avoid going back to a farm bill written in 1949. Very optimistic that we’re going to get the farm bill, and the one sticking point in the farm bill from critics is farm insurance. Chicago Tribune described it as a federal boondoggle to benefit farmers, and of course that couldn’t be further from the truth. When you look back at our many times we had to go to Congress to write a disaster bill at the last minute because we had a drought, or we had a flood, or we had a blizzard.

Orion – So I gotta tell you, I like him, and I spend an hour and a half with him in his office, talked about family, talked about the fact … I mentioned to him he is the first Secretary of Agriculture ever from the State of Georgia, and he said, “Well, you might look a little deeper, because I think I’m the first veterinarian to be a Secretary of Agriculture in the US.” And of course he is that, but he’s been in the world of politics, Governor of Georgia, he’s been in agribusiness with two or three companies that he had to place in trust to become Secretary. He knows the business, and he knows how important trade is to the United States and all countries, really.

Orion – And so I asked him if he’s able to convince President Trump that trade is important, and he kinda smiled, and he said, “I’m working on that.” So I like him.

Harry – That’s great, you know, and now I’ve had you tell me what your Secretary of Ag thinks, now I want to hear what you think.

Orion – Well, from the standpoint of NAFTA, it’s been interesting to watch President Trump, probably the first businessman we’ve had in the White House in decades, and he deals or tries to as much as you can with the Congress, to handle those situations, and I take NAFTA as an example. He, of course, raised a lot of eyebrows and a lot of criticism when in the campaign he said, “I’m going to blow NAFTA up.” But then he watched the reaction for the next couple of days from even the auto industry in the US, and certainly from farmers and ranchers, and he watched that reaction, and a couple of days later he is saying, “Well no, I may not blow it up, but I just kind of renegotiated. It’s 20 years old, and things have changed, and we’ve gotta renegotiate.” And he seems to do that, approaches to a lot of legislative ideas that a...