USDA recently announced another round of rural broadband spending, and Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says it is important to make sure everyone can take advantage of these upgrades.
“We still have to make sure, as we did with rural electrification, that everybody has an opportunity to take advantage of this. Businesses obviously can expand significantly, their network, their ability to sell, not just in their own geographic area, but literally worldwide. Educational facilities now have the ability to link up. Oftentimes, in rural communities, it’s sometimes difficult to have the broad array of courses that young folks may have in other schools in urban centers. So, now with high-speed internet, there’s an opportunity to access some of these advanced placement courses, for example,” said Sec. Vilsack.
He points out the benefits to producers who are able to take advantage of these upgrades, such as the ability to better use precision ag along with marketing capacity. More than $700 million was announced recently to begin some of these projects as part of the Reconnect Program through the Infrastructure Act.
