Political Quotes

“If I could today, I would like to share a story about one of my favorite communities in Kansas. At 3,681 feet of elevation, Goodland, Kansas, sits on the border of the Kansas-Colorado line. You can look to the west and see the Rocky Mountains literally rising out of the Earth. Partially because of that elevation and the many hot, dry days there, the farmers have struggled for decades for a great crop. But about 20 years ago, one of my good friends, Alan Townsend, and the farmers who make up 21st Century Bean, started growing pinto beans. They had some success, and then they started growing black-eyed peas and garbanzos as well. Today, 21st Century Bean grows 40 million pounds of beans every day. They had success at that, and they said: You know what else we can do? We can process and package these here. So they formed a processing plant and hired more employees. That was a success. Eventually, they hired a trucking company. They now have their own trucking company to ship their products. Today, and every day, 21st Century Bean ships out enough beans to feed a million people across this country. The great thing is, their main customer is food banks across this great country as well. I am so proud that we have made food banks such a priority in this year's nutrition bill, the farm bill. This year, we are going to increase spending from $15 million to $60 million for food banks.…”