U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue (@SecretarySonny) was keynote speaker Monday, Dec. 9 at the 2019 NGFA Country Elevator Conference (#CEC19) in Indianapolis, IN.
Here is an excerpt of his comments on the rural broadband initiatives during a sit-down Q&A with NGFA President and CEO Randy Gordon.
Randy Gordon: Mr. Secretary, the department under your leadership has put a lot of effort into rural broadband initiatives to. Can you briefly talk about that?
Sonny Perdue: I think this issue is dependent upon many of these tools already on the shelf for OEMs to deploy. And it requires a RTK type of--I don't know if 5G is going to do it, if we get it deployed quickly enough, but it's going to revolutionize the way we farm. We're already seeing a lot of that. And I believe it has the ability to be the most transformative thing we've seen since rural electrification. As we develop those tools, [we can do more and more]. That's why I think it's going to be exponential to get America covered, whether it’s satellites or fiber. I know not just the farmsteads with the fields use it from a productivity standpoint, besides the sociological impacts.
Why should farm kids in rural areas have drive to drive to a parking lot to do their homework these days? That's the difference that way. So we need [broadband internet access] all across America, and I'm convinced that if you unleashed the American farmer/rancher/producer with these kinds of tools, we won't have any problem reaching the levels [of production] that China is asking for.