The American Farm Bureau Federation says there were some very important things in President Obama's State of the Union address for agriculture, although they are concerned about his stance on climate change.
AFBF Public Policy Director Dale Moore says they're very pleased Obama brought up immigration reform.
"Here's an opportunity to address the ag labor needs, which, in many parts of the country a lot of times involve foreign workers," Moore says. "Addressing both the short term and the long term needs that farmers and ranchers have and assuring that they have a stable workforce and that those workers have a simple, straightforward way to become part of that workforce is one of our top priorities."
Moore says it's also good the president talked about European trade negotiations moving forward and that he continues to support bioenergy.
However, Moore says they consider what he said about climate change a "red flag."
"Our big concern is that a lot of our competitors around the world are just going to let the U.S. take all of these big steps and Draconian measures that they've put on small business, including farmers and ranchers, to meet whatever climate change goals without any scientific evidence of what we're doing is going to make that big of a change."
Moore said it was pretty clear that President Obama indicated he would push climate change issues through by executive order since Congress isn't moving forward on it.
Source: brownfieldagnews.com