By Matt Dutton Herald-Whig
Posted: Nov. 21
PAYSON, Ill. — A Seymour High School graduate has been named to President-elect Donald Trump’s Agricultural Advisory Committee.
“The working class members of this country need to be heard,” Loos said. “Nov. 8 was the day the work began, not when it ended.”
The committee was formed, Loos said, with the intent of conveying public sentiment to help direct policy within the new administration. The Trump administration asked Gary Baise, a well-known Illinois farmer and attorney, to find farmers who are “the real men of the land,” Loos said. Baise recommended Loos, who now lives in Nebraska and regularly speaks in 35 states and four different countries, for the committee.
“I felt quite honored to be asked to have input on the direction of this country,” Loos said. “We live in a representative republic, and as citizens of this country, the people representing us need to hear what we have to say.”
His qualification, Loos feels, comes from his extensive speaking history and the intimate connections he has made with everyday people across America. He described the new responsibility as “to make sure they know what the people in this country are thinking and wanting.”
“We are the eyes and ears on the ground,” Loos said.
Sixty members from diverse backgrounds comprise the committee, establishing, as Loos said, “a cross-section of people from every part of this country.”
One issue on which Loos hopes to enact major change is the filling of agricultural production jobs.
“We need to take a stand,” Loos said. “We need to think about who is going to do the tasks that make this country great.”
Loos noted a large demographic of the country has been overlooked by previous administrations.
“I think that’s why we had so much of rural America stand up and vote for Trump,” Loos said. “We are not happy with the status quo.”
Immediately after the election, he began receiving phone calls and emails from somewhat-fearful Australian, Irish and Canadian agricultural media outlets.
“They were concerned that he is not going to do any trade with other countries, but they were not getting the whole story,” Loos said. “To think the Trump administration is opposed to trade is just misguided.”
