 Welcome to my webpage. Since my being sworn in as Alabama's Commissioner of Agriculture & Industries, I have been fortunate to work with many fine, dedicated people in our department.
Together, we have tackled some daunting challenges, such as a severe cutback in our funding that resulted in substantial reductions in staff, and the worst natural disaster ever to hit Alabama: the April 27, 2011, tornadoes. North Alabama farmers suffered terribly from those storms, taking out a large portion of the state's poultry industry.
In addition to budget cuts and tornadoes, we have endured a terrible drought that began in the spring of 2011 and extended into the fall. Farmers, especially those in southeast Alabama, lost much of their grain crop production.
We are currently dealing with crippling losses of laborers in many of Alabama's agricultural industries and on the farms. This is a direct result of the state's immigration act signed into law in June 2011. We have worked with agriculture interests to match them up with organizations that provide temporary workers for jobs vacated as a result of the immigration law.
Finally, part of our department's mission is to promote Alabama agricultural products through foreign trade. We have been a reliable advocate on this issue, especially for passage of the Free Trade Agreements in Congress. When Alabama sells products overseas the net result is jobs creation.
We will continue moving forward with an aggressive campaign to ship Alabama's agricultural bounty, including poultry, beef, cotton, corn, soybeans and timber, to foreign markets where our quality is second to none.
God bless you and the great people of Alabama!
Sincerely,
John McMillan |
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