In a recent interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack appeared to link gun control to the farm bill as examples of the deep, partisan divide currently afflicting America.

With Congress about to adjourn for the year, it appears likely that this congressional session will go down in history as the least productive in modern America. With only about 150 bills passed into law in the past two years (roughly two percent of all proposed legislation), the current Congress appears more likely to be defined by partisan gridlock than a commitment to serving the nation.

In a recent interview, Vilsack addressed this gridlock, stating that the country needed to have a series of major conversation that could help bridge partisan divides. In addition to criticizing Speaker of the House John Boehner for his unwillingness to push forward on the 2012 Farm Bill, Vilsack also cited the recent Sandy Hook school shooting and argued that the nation needed to have a conversation about gun control.

“Here’s how I view this. I view when the conversation starts, as this conversation started, with a respect for the 2nd Amendment and a recognition that there is a value system attached to it that is important, and it starts with the recognition that people do hunt and that that’s important to them – 38 percent of America either hunts or fishes. So you know, it’s a big part of the population. It’s a much deeper conversation,” Vilsack said, arguing that gun control could be a potentially unifying conversation.

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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer