Agriculture
Promoting Sustainable Growth in Alabama's Largest Industry
No single industry is more critical to Alabama’s economy than our agriculture sector. Alabama’s seafood, farm, and timber producers are some of the most efficient and productive in the nation, representing over 20 percent of Alabama’s economy. Sen. Sessions, a native of rural Wilcox County, consistently champions policies that support Alabama’s farmers and promote a secure food supply for America.
In the Senate, Sessions fights to maintain a strong, traditional safety net for southern agriculture by continuing counter-cyclical and direct payments, and a viable marketing-loan program. He believes that, given a level playing field, Alabama’s farmers can compete with any in the world. Sessions has passed legislation to increase the availability of key vaccines and medicines for poultry and livestock, and he has pushed for tougher inspection of foreign seafood products by the Food and Drug Administration.
Sessions is a leading advocate in the Senate for the development of advanced renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. Not only do biofuels represent one important step that we, as a nation, must take to reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, but they also represent a tremendous opportunity for Alabama’s farmers who are producing energy crops such as corn, soybeans, and switchgrass. Only by increasing production of these crops will our nation's farmers be able to meet the government's challenge to produce 36 billion gallons of alternative fuels by 2022.
