The new chairman of the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) says 2017 was a championship year for the organization and he hopes to sustain that excellence moving forward.

John Oster with Morral Companies in Ohio says one area where ARA will be very active in the coming year is in development of the new farm bill. “Although we are a small percentage of the total outlay for the farm bill, what we do is extremely important,” he said in an interview after the passing of the ARA gavel to him from Tim McArdle.

Oster says they want to work closely with new administration officials such as Sonny Perdue and Scott Pruitt on regulations impacting the industry, and do an even better job of telling agriculture’s winning story.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Oster here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/ara17-oster.mp3″ text=”Interview with new ARA chair John Oster, Morral Companies”]

2017 ARA Conference and Expo Photo Album