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Presidential Candidate Holds Agriculture Conference Call

On Monday evening Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican Presidential candidate, spoke with Iowa farmers during a telephone town hall event hosted by the Iowa Soybean Association. In an effort to focus national attention on the critical topic of agricultural policy and trade impacting farmers across America, the ISA board of directors has invited all major Presidential candidates to participate in a telephone town hall meeting.

During his opening remarks Perry said the country is in trouble and he is concerned about the future and that his candidacy is about fighting the fight for the next generation.

"I'm not interested in going to Washington to reshuffle the deck, to nibble around the edges; I'm about really overhauling the place," Perry said. "When I think about what's happened up there, the politicians doing these incredibly risky deals with these Wall Street bankers; I think that is one of the great problems this country has got. I can diagram it on a map and it is a straight line from Washington, D.C. to Wall Street."

Perry was asked about his thoughts on infrastructure and he suggested the need to restructure the Army Corps of Engineers and to change the way things are handled in Washington.

"I think the key is making sure that you have the resources in Washington and that we're not spending money on programs that we don't need, but we're analyzing and putting the dollars into long-term infrastructure," Perry said. "This administration and Congress have really put this country in a heck of a predicament from the standpoint of debt and I've yet to figure out where that money went because it didn't create any jobs and it sure didn't build any transportation infrastructure."

A poll of the audience showed that more than 46% felt burdensome regulations are the number one threat to agriculture. Perry said that the all these new regulations coming out of the Environmental Protection Agency are a concern.

"What I want to do and what I've called for already is to pull every regulation since 2008 and audit them," Perry said. "Have not only the agency audit them but third-party outside groups audit these regulations and do it in a very speedy fashion. And if that regulation kills jobs and costs money more than what the benefit would be then I'll do away with it."

To listen to a portion of the town hall meeting use the audio player on this page.