Congressman Dave Loebsack, a Democrat from Mount Vernon, asked the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan about opportunities to improve the country’s agriculture during a hearing today on the war effort. “I believe that re-defining and growing the Afghan economy will be key to stabilizing the country and eventually allowing our troops to come home,” Loebsack says.
In July, Loebsack was in Afghanistan where he met with an Agriculture Development Team. General Stanley McChrystal agreed the country’s agriculture development is crucial to improving security. “Once you increase agriculture in most cases but also any kind of employment what you do is you take fighters off the battlefield or you take potential fighters off, because unemployment is biggest recruiter for the Taliban right now,” McChrystal says.
The comments came during a hearing by the House Armed Services Committee.