US Secretary of Agriculture visits Racine County, tours Case plant
USDA Secretary visits Racine County, tours Case plant
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins was in Racine County today discussing strengthening American agricultural manufacturing.
RACINE COUNTY, Wis. - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins was in Racine County today discussing strengthening American agricultural manufacturing.
Racine County visit
What To Know:
Secretary Rollins was visiting the Case tractor plant, talking to and meeting employees and taking a tour of the plant. She covered a lot during this news conference.
Case tractor
She stressed the importance of agricultural trade, especially in Wisconsin. Mentioning how she is working to put farmers and ranchers first with policies she talked about at the Dairy Expo in Madison and will talk about at the G20 dinner in Milwaukee.
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She also highlighted "Make America Healthy Again" movements and the increase in exports of agricultural products throughout Wisconsin.
Pressure on farmers
Local perspective:
At the same time, farmers are seeing record-high diesel prices throughout Wisconsin. The average price for a gallon of diesel in the state right now, according to AAA, is $6.44. That's nearly three dollars more than a year ago today, before the U.S. entered the war with Iran.
Just a week ago, Wisconsin reached its highest recorded average for a gallon of diesel at $6.62.
When asked about how the administration was hoping to help farmers in the midst of these rising prices, she admitted that – especially now during harvest season – it is very difficult for farmers. But she reiterated multiple times that she and the president are focusing on energy independence: the U.S. being able to fuel and feed itself rather than depending on other countries.
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Record diesel prices top $6 a gallon — what it means for your wallet
U.S. diesel prices reached a record average of nearly $6.06 per gallon Friday as escalating fighting between the U.S. and Iran disrupted global oil supplies.
What they're saying:
"That is why reassuring all of this, having more biofuels, I know this is an important area of the country for biofuels. This is how we solve this for the long-term and this president has always been about fixing things for the long-term and for the short-term, there may be some challenges with that, but if he believes sincerely if he doesn’t do it then it won’t get done and that’s why he’s making these decisions," Rollins said.
Rollins is soon headed back to Washington, D.C. She hinted at a federal announcement she would make on future work to help farmers with diesel prices.
Portions of this article were formatted using A.I. FOX6’s Ben Hanson and an editor reviewed it for accuracy and tone prior to publishing.
The Source: Information in this story was gathered from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and FOX6 News reporting.