Perhaps i should give this pen to sonny purdue. What do you think . [applause] chester fire thank you very much everybody. Secretary purdue good afternoon, everybody. It has been a big day from a having been sworn in by Justice Thomas as secretary of agriculture this morning. Im ready to go to work. Withd a wonderful meeting the president where he a intricate knowledge of the issues of agriculture having to do with trade, labor, regulatory reform, as well as infrastructure. These people from all over the United States are legitimate agriculturists who help communicate to the president the needs of american agriculture in a very sincere way, and he was very sincere in his response regarding hosting them here today and signing an executive order regarding agriculture and rural prosperity. He has charged us with interagency cooperation that will enable us to work cross agency in this task force and report back to him did no less than 180 days all the barriers to rural prosperity and agricultural productivity. So im looking forward to that. Been charged today in many ways, and im excited about the possibility and make sure that we make american agriculture as great as it can i will be happy to answer any questions, but your experts are behind me, and we will probably call him then to answer some of your questions as well, so thank you very much. Farmersdo you say to who are uneasy about trade . Secretary purdue i think there are opportunities to expand trade. Countries that have been in surpluses with the u. S. , we are in a powerful position to expand trade and call upon them, and be called upon us to have personal interventions with leaders of other countries of which we would love to trade, certainly deep in china among other things , and charge me with getting him memos about the opportunities that we see in agriculture to do that, so we are excited. I know this is a lot of anxiety. The blessing of america is that are so productive. Wehave an abundance that need to sell, and that is going to be my task, to go around the world with secretary ross, with trade representative 10 hour undersecretary for trade to make sure American Products are on the tables all over this world. I think with the president has done yesterday and secretary since a signal that we need to play fair. That is really the president s issue regarding nafta, that we want a Free Trade Agreement that is free and fair. Obviously, what canada has done with their Dairy Pricing has been very unfair to our northeastern Dairy Farmers in wisconsin and upstate new york, particularly, and thats not right. What we have shown is they have benefited from their lumber exports to the u. S. For many president shis administration and secretary ross are willing to say enough is enough. Lets play fair and we can get. His thing straightened out the president is already on it. As a dairy farmer, i can tell you canada has changed the classification within their milk pricing system, that his given workthe comfort to underhandedly within nafta, so they made some changes, and at the secretary and the president doesnt get a handle on that, other countries we trade with will look for opportunities to look underhandedly as well. Am a dairy farmer from michigan. My name is hank choate. Secretary the president today demonstrated to all of us a willingness to not only continued trade but strengthen recognize 95 we of the mouth that need to be fed are outside of the u. S. , and each and every one of us are willing to step up to that task and feed them. How many jobs in lumber do you think will be created in the United States because of the terrace . We had a timber owner here from florida who has battled for years regarding the discrimination regarding canadian lumber and timber coming across. Canada owns much of the timberland, and they charge a fee which has given producers in canada a huge advantage. I cannot quantify the number of jobs are now, but the productivity of our American Forests are tremendous. One of the interesting challenges i look for over is beginning to utilize the American Forests owned by the United StatesForest Service to make them productive again, jobs all over the country where they have been cut out because of litigation and environmental. Oncerns thosewant to get communities working again. Were talking hundreds of thousands of jobs. What you expect to talk about with commissioner hogan when you meet later this week . Secretary purdue its really about relationships. We did trade person to person. Thats the good thing about the president. He believes in relationships. I want to build a relationship with the eu. They have been good partners in the past. We would love to do more with them. There are no specific issues other than just building relationships where we can communicate going forward. If youre going to bring in hundreds of thousands of jobs, the fear is that will raise price of Home Ownership of new homes. Price influx are you expecting by that . Secretary purdue i dont agree with your premise. Im not expecting any kind of influx. To utilize the productive capacity of our american forest owners, it is going to be jobs that not necessarily increase pricing. It just increases opportunity. With this task force, what topics do you expect to be looking at . Secretary purdue we will probably be starting as early as june, and we are for any barriers to agricultural productivity and rural prosperity. Again, interagency is very important. He has placed these other secretaries on there, and as you know, Agriculture Policy is affected by the epa, by labor, by finance, and by many other areas, so i look forward to working with these other secretaries to cooperatively determine where we can help american rural areas be more productive and prosperous. Well talk about labor and the president talked about labor today. What were some of the things about immigration that particularly in terms of farm labor secretary purdue he challenged us to have a plan to bring to your route farm labor as well as the nonseasonal work. We talked about how we can work with the secretary of labor in the Guest Worker Program and to make it work like it should again. We look forward to that challenge. This young lady is from venezuela. Fromm valerie early minnesota. Today was a great day meeting