introduction. it is my great pleasure to introduce the secretary of agriculture this morning. i look forward to hearing more about the framework on the competitiveness and resiliency of the usda has developed and will be playing out for us. the past two years we have seen our food and agriculture supply chain rocked by a series of what we call once in a generation events. the covid-19 pandemic, a worsening act labor crisis, and most recently of course russia s warring ukraine have strained the entire sector i would say to a near breaking point, in some cases perhaps beyond that. from farmers in the fields to consumers in grocery store aisles, every american and of course untold millions around the world continue to deal with the impact of these events. my members, agricultural cooperatives that are owned by farmers and operate for their benefit have witnessed this first hand. the breath and diversity of co-ops means faith they spanned the entire supply chain. connecting far