This episode of Fieldwork includes a discussion of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's

partnerships for climate-smart commodities. In the interest of transparency, we'd like to let you know

that both Tara Vanderdousen and Mitchell Hora have applied for funding from the program.

Welcome to the Fieldwork podcast. I'm Tara Vaynerducson.

And I am Mitch O'Hora.

We are a podcast by farmers for farmers, and I'm a dairy farmer and environmental scientist in New Mexico.

And I'm a farmer from southeast Iowa, Washington County. A huge thanks to the Walton Family Foundation for supporting us here on this season of the podcast. Today, our guest is actually an

East Coast guy, but we won't hold that against him too much. We won't hold against you. Robert Bonnie

is our guest here today. He's in Washington, D.C. We got him tied in here on our video

connection, and he's got a nice American flag in the background. Mine's over here on my other

wall, so good to see. He looks very professional, Camere Des, but I have my American flag as well,

so I think we're all representing today. I put my tie on for you

guys today. Yeah, Tara and I were talking about like, do we need to get dressed up? Like I've got

my blazer back over here that I can put over my fieldwork t-shirt, you know, but I'm just like,

no, we're farmers. We're coming here to talk farm talk. It's going to be fine. A little bit about Mr. Robert Bonney here. He works within the Biden

administration at USDA, United States Department of Agriculture. His formal title is the

Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation. And this isn't the first time he has worked

in a high-level job at USDA. During the Obama administration, he served as

under-secretary for the natural resources and environment. So, Mr. Robert Bonney, thanks for

hopping on here today. Where do you want to start? Thank you guys for having me, and I'll start

in any direction you point me. Set the stage a little bit. Tell us about who you are, where you come from. As Tara pointed out, you're out on the East Coast. Tell us about that. And tell us about, you know, why is this? Well, we don't want to go that far. Tell us about yourself first. So I actually grew up on a farm in Kentucky. My parents both in the horse business. And my dad was actually an attorney that did nothing but horse related law.

So you can do that and make a living in Kentucky.

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