[Davisgig] FCC chairman Ajit Pai visits Woodland farms

[Richard Lowenberg]

FCC chairman Ajit Pai visits Woodland farms, AgStart

Touts importance of Broadband in agriculture and by local farmers

By WOODLAND DAILY DEMOCRAT |
PUBLISHED: March 25, 2019
https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2019/03/25/fcc-chairman-visits-woodland-farms-agstart/

Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Ajit Pai visited 
Woodland and the Sacramento region on Sunday and Monday, stopping at 
AgStart in downtown and the Muller Ranch west of town.

“I’m in Sacramento, exploring #digitaldivide,” Pai announced via Twitter 
on Monday. “Appreciate local leaders sharing yesterday how broadband can 
benefit Californians in terms of telemedicine, precision agriculture, 
public safety communications, educational opportunity, and more.”

Later, during a tour of AgStart in downtown Woodland Monday morning, Pai 
said that “stakeholders there were stressing “the importance of 
#ruralbroadband connectivity to support growth.”

Again, via Twitter, Pai said that “Broadband is increasingly critical to 
America’s farms and ranches. I heard that firsthand from Frank Muller 
here in rural Yolo County. Muller reports that connectivity could help 
him be much more productive.”

The Daily Democrat was not notified of the visit by the FCC or others 
locally. There was also no report on the FCC’s website about the visit 
or tours.

However, in a video posted to his Twitter feed on Monday morning, Pai is 
shown standing next to Frank Muller at Muller Ranch, a 10,000-acre farm 
containing 194 fields, using a soil moisture measuring device that needs 
broadband communication to operate effectively and thereby make Muller 
more efficient in growing crops.

Pai also posted his visits to wineries across the region, including 
Clarksburg where said he went to see “firsthand the challenges facing 
farmers and connectivity.”

Pai is the first Indian American to be named chairman of the FCC, being 
appointed by President Donald Trump in March 2017 to a second five-year 
term.

Before his appointment to the FCC, Pai held positions with the 
Department of Justice, the US Senate, the FCC’s Office of General 
Counsel, and Verizon Communications.

Pai is a proponent of repealing net neutrality and in late 2017 voted 
with the majority of the FCC to reverse an earlier decision to regulate 
the internet.



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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
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