Trade, tariffs and immigration-related labor issues dominated the discussion at a Wednesday roundtable with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Congressman Tom Reed.
The event was at Ravines Winery off Pre-Emption Road south of Geneva, operated by Morton and Lisa Hallgren.
Perdue, who grew up on a dairy farm in Georgia, was given a tour of the vineyard and winemaking operations by the Hallgrens before the roundtable. He was accompanied by Reed, R-23 of Corning, who quipped that Perdue will not be confused with a Washington insider.
“My favorite thing to do as Agriculture Secretary is to visit farmers. I’ve visited ag people in all 50 states in my time in this job. Farmers may talk different, deal with different climates and soils and produce different things, but they are basically concerned about the same things, so we have a dialogue,’’ Perdue said.
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