Last year at the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau (CIRB) annual meeting, there were still lots of candidates for president and Informa Economics Senior VP Jim Wiesemeyer talked about what they might mean to the future of agriculture.
This year, he only had to focus on the one who actually made it to the White House. “It’s a great time because you don’t even have to tell the truth anymore,” he joked. “Everybody told me the world was going to come to an end if Trump won.”
Wiesemeyer pointed out that one of the reasons Trump won was support from rural America. “Not just farmers,” he said. “(But) it was a big factor and he has not forgotten that.”
Last year Wiesemeyer said that Trump was an unknown when it came to policy but was likely to pick good people, so he spent some time discussing the various cabinet picks and how they might impact farm policy and trade in particular. Listen to his presentation here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcast/cirb17-wiesemeyer.mp3″ text=”Interview with Jim Wiesemeyer, Informa Economics”]