REMARKS AND A QUESTION-AND -ANSWER SESSION WITH THE AGRICULTURE COMMUNICATORS C

Created: 6/30/1992

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

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Remarksuestion-and-Answer Session With the Agriculture Communicators Congress

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The President. Thank you for that welcome. And to those of you from outside the beltway, as we say welcome to Washington on this humid day, This Herb Plambeck memorialsome of you may know the dean down there, but it'sleasure to see him and see so many of

you.

Let me justord about our Secretary of Agriculture. He came into this job with considerable experience in agriculture, both out in tbe field and then in Congress. In my view, he has done an outstanding job for American agriculture. Not only has he worked hard here domestically, the concerns of the farmers very much on his mind,an tell you from watching him in action he hasuperb job in terms of negotiating to try touccessful conclusion to the Uruguay round of GATT.m very, very grateful to him.

I'm delighted to sec Sara Wyant and Marsha Mauzey and Dave King and Taylor Brown. And once again let me say welcome to all of you.

et into the agricultural topics, I'd like tohort statementope will be of interest to all of you, indeed, to all Americans. This morning Ambassador Malcolm Toon briefed me on his trip last week to Russia. He went there to determine whether the American POWs or MIA's could possiblv be alive there; went there, the full cooperation pledged by Boris Yeltsin before he left. His report makes clear that Boris Yeltsin stands by his pledge, providing us access to Russian officials and opening up the KGB archives. But Ambassador Toon also reports thai his search has yet to uncover any evidence thai American POWs or MIA's are currently being held in Russia.

Asake it to be an article ofolemn covenant with those who serve this country; The United States will always make every possible effort, take every possible action to learn the fate of those taken prisoner or missing in action. Our aimull accounting for every POW and MIA, nothing less. I'm grateful to Malcolm Toon for pursuing this important mission. He's home now. He's left some people there, and we are going to try to get to the bonom of this so wc can allay the concerns of every family who might possibly be involved.

At my instruction. Ambassador Toon will continue his work with the full support of theincluding an exhaustive search of the Soviet archives. And the government, thisyou. has promised toefinitive statement on this issue within the next few weeks.taking their role very seriously. And we're going to pursue every credible account ofor MIA's held by the Soviet:

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Now to the issue at hand, the matrix of this wonderful get-together. First, my thanks lo all of you for the great job you do in keeping the farmers and the ranchers and the agribusiness owners not just well-informed but the best informed in the entirenow you have their respect and gratitude and certainly mine. too.

Democracy works because at its heart is one fundamental principle, freedom. Freedom is about human rights, self-determination, peace among nations. It's also about the free flow of ideas and information, and that's where your job comes in. That's why your work is so important not only to democracy and free enterprise but also to agriculture.

Thanks, in part, to the job that you do every single day, agriculture is America's number one industry. There areot of people in this country that don't understand this, so let me repeat it: Agriculture is America's number one industry.

The news lately has been taken up with urban issues.ant you to know that rural issues

equally important. And my growth agenda that I'm trying to get through the Congress will benefit all

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