When people talk about the federal Farm Bill, they’re not covering nearly enough territory. That’s the opinion of an authority on the matter — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

He prefers to call it the Food, Farm and Jobs Bill. That’s “because it really deals with all of those issues,” Vilsack said during a recent telephone interview with The Times-Reporter.

Only 15 percent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s total budget goes specifically to farm programs, he said. Read more…