Top Tom Vilsack Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Tom Vilsack Biography

Thomas James Vilsack (/ˈvɪlsæk/; born December 13, 1950) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the United States Secretary of Agriculture from 2009 until 2017. A member of the Iowa Democratic Party, Vilsack also served as the 40th Governor of Iowa from 1999 to 2007.

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Tom Vilsack Quotes

Hillary Clinton was in rural America during the Iowa caucuses, but I think the nature of a campaign makes it more difficult once you become the candidate. There's a messaging opportunity here throughout, not just in the election season, but before the election, the opportunity to underscore what government is doing in a positive way in partnership with rural folks. I think it's a messaging issue. It's being there physically, talking to folks, listening to people, respecting and admiring what they do, and then making sure that they understand precisely what the partnership is.

Campaign, Opportunity, People, Precisely, Thinking, Underscore

Many young and beginning farmers start out in local markets. Some stay there, and some scale up.

Beginning, Farmers, Markets, Scales, Stay, Young

Now our job, our duty, our responsibility to ensure the safety and security of our citizens cannot be complete unless we guarantee health care security for our citizens.

Care, Complete, Jobs, Responsibility, Safety, Unless

I think people have to remember where we were in 2009. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month. We had an unemployment rate in double digits. We had poverty rates soaring. We had kids who were food insecure. Today in 2016, we have a lot less unemployment, a lot less poverty, and a lot fewer kids who are food insecure.

Insecure, Kids, Month, Poverty, Thinking, Unemployment

But It doesn't make sense for us to have a continued reliance on a supply of oil where whenever there is unrest in another part of the world, gasoline prices jump up. We need a renewable fuel industry that's more than corn-based, of course, and there are a whole series of great opportunities here.

Gasoline Prices, Oil, Opportunity, Supply, Whole, World

The food pyramid is very complicated. It doesn't give you as much info in a quick glance as the plate does.

Doe, Give, Giving, Info, Pyramids, Quick

When you've paid your debt to society, you need to be reconnected and re-engaged in society.

Debt, Needs, Paid, Reconnected

I think a lot of people don't understand the makeup of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program population, of the food stamp population, 80 percent senior citizens, people with disabilities, children, and those who are actually in the work force working. The folks who are not - who are able-bodied, who are adults, who don't have dependents, there's a desire to make sure that they get to work and that they aren't basically gaming the system. But the reality is, they have a responsibility to either be involved in work or education, or they're limited in terms of their benefits.

Benefits, Children, Disabilities, Limited, Responsibility, Senior

If we are to transition to a new economy and to lead it, we must start by transforming our schools.

Economy, Lead, School, Transition

The lack of access to proper nutrition is not only fueling obesity, it is leading to food insecurity and hunger among our children.

Children, Food, Fueling, Insecurity, Nutrition

Democrats have always historically referred to our families as working families, and I have sort of changed that moniker. I think what we have is a nation of worried families - families that are concerned about job security, families who thought their pensions were secure and now have questions.

Democrats, Families, Jobs, Thinking, Working, Worried

President Obama has expressed his commitment to responsible stewardship of our land, water, and other natural resources. And one way of restoring the land to its natural condition is what we are doing here today - breaking pavement for the People's Garden.

Commitment, Garden, Land, Obama, Way

Proper school nutrition must be complemented by activities outside of the cafeteria. The decisions parents make to keep their kids healthy are critical in fighting this battle on the home front.

Front, Home, Keep, Kids, Make, School

I think the Democrats have - we really have failed to be in rural America, in the sense of having our leaders spending time talking to folks in rural America. The president Barack Obama has been there, but other than the president and vice president, we have had not a whole lot of conversation in rural America.

Leader, Leaders, President, Thinking, Time, Vice

I grew up in a city. My parents would think there was something wrong with America if they knew I was secretary of agriculture.

Agriculture, Cities, Grew, Think, Thinking

If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it.

Dance, Inspirational, Prayer, Rain

Somewhere between 50 to 60 percent of the food you eat has been touched by immigrant hands, and it is fair to say some of them are not here as they should be here. But if you didn't have these folks, you would be spending a lot more - three, four or five times more - for food, or we would have to import food and have all the food security risks.

Folks, Hands, Risk, Risks, Times, Would Be

If we truly want an innovative and creative renewable fuel industry, then it needs to be challenged. And if we create a set of protections that allow it to not be as creative and innovative as possible, then we aren't doing a service to the industry or to the people of this country.

Allow, Challenged, Country, Creative, People, Set

In his first year in office, President Obama pulled us back from the brink of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and worked to lay a new foundation for economic growth. The president identified three key strategies to build that lasting prosperity: innovation, investment, and education.

Back, Growth, Keys, Office, Years

Very few people know that my department is responsible for 1. 2 million home loans since I have been secretary. That's 1. 2 million families that are living in homes in rural America that would never have homeownership, but for the United States Department of Agriculture's programs. We have to do more of educating people about the partnership that does exist between rural America and their government.

Home, Homes, Loans, Partnership, People, Rural

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