Confirmed earlier this year as deputy secretary of agriculture, the number-two job at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Moseley heads the USDA budget team.

He spoke of how safe it felt to be in America’s heartland. His experience during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks while he was in Washington left an obvious effect on him.

“We need to return to normal, but normal will never be the same,” Moseley said. “We will move on and make life good and valuable, but we’ll be a bit more cautious.”

Moseley explained the administration’s position on the upcoming farm bill. He touched on three major issues on which the administration is focused.

He named the top issue as the need to deal with trade barriers and stimulate foreign trade of U.S. agricultural products. Second, he said, the administration has placed significant emphasis on conservation and opportunities for more conservation activities on productive land.

“Though much has been done, we still lose 1.9 billion tons of soil a year,” Moseley said. “And we need to do more to protect this valuable resource.”

While reviewing the budget, Moseley said he realized the infrastructure of agriculture needed “fixing.” By infrastructure, he referred to research and plant and animal inspections that keep the food supply safe.

Following his speech, Moseley toured the Indiana Conservation Partnership’s exhibit area with State Conservationist Jane Hardisty of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. A highlight of the area showed the comparison of protected land and unprotected land under a rainfall simulator provided by USDA’s Ag Research Service, National Soil Erosion Research Lab.

With rain falling at an inch per hour, visitors could easily see the difference in the runoff of the land where conservation practices were not applied.

Moseley remarked: “This is the best example of showing conservation tillage and erosion control I’ve ever seen.”

“If people don’t get the picture after seeing this, that soil conservation is important, they never will,” he added.