The United States Agriculture Deputy Secretary visited the University of Wisconsin Friday to advocate the USDA’s new initiative that emphasizes a fundamental need for a reconnection between consumers and farmers.

The “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative, which was rolled out last September, attempts to combat the spiritual dangers of not knowing where your food comes from by connecting people to the rich land which surrounds them, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan said.

She added since President Barack Obama was recently elected with a mandate for change, the government has taken on the responsibility of altering the way Americans think about food.

To increase Americans’ consumption of healthier foods, the initiative seeks to emphasize the growing locality of food systems and aims to increase economic benefits for local farmers.

While the government does not advocate for one definition of locality or a single type of agricultural production, it highlights the necessity for the development of new strategies for farmers, Merrigan said.

She added rural farmers have been facing several challenges in recent years, such as a high poverty rate, formidable combine costs and an aging farmer population.

Another struggle which plagues rural America is the presence of food deserts, which are low income communities whose grocery stores are farther than one mile away and therefore do not have access to quality produce, Merrigan said.

“The paradox between obesity and hunger also exists as a constant struggle in American society today due to the lack of access to healthy food,” Merrigan said.

Sixty-five percent of American adults are either overweight or obese, while on average, children between the ages five and eight consume 750 empty calories per day, which consists of half of their total caloric intake.

To overcome these problems, the initiative aims to offer people food with a background story that will aid in their reconnection to the land and to the farmers and producers.

This will have a vast impact because it will allow people to establish links to farms and to see the exact place where their food is produced, UW graduate student Greg Jackson said.

Since it requires a considerable amount of time to generate a new law, the United States Department of Agriculture will strive to employ their current resources better and to use the programs they have at hand to make the initiative a success, Merrigan said.

Merrigan arrived on campus early Friday to meet with UW leaders to review extension agendas and to observe the work and research being performed.

For the initiative to have societal influence, it is necessary that American citizens, especially students, go to the USDA website to give their ideas and share their stories about local agriculture, Merrigan said.

The government and citizens must take full advantage of every effort to educate one another because people do not have the same agricultural knowledge their grandparents might have had, Madison resident Molly Stentz said.