text: Sec. of Agriculture Addresses the American Farm Bureau Federatio
  Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to address members of the American Farm Bureau Federation today. The head of the USDA spoke of the Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity and urged members to contact the organization about the regulations and policies that impede their productivity.
  According to the USDA, Rural America includes 72% of the nation's land and 46 million people. Rural areas encompass regions that focus on agricultural production as well as places where work is more often found in industries such as manufacturing, mining, and forestry. They include locales that are prosperous and rapidly-growing, locales that are chronically depressed, and everything in between. Rural America is home to many different racial and ethnic demographics and a wide array of economic activities. These residents live in a variety of settings, from counties bordering suburbs to remote and isolated areas.