Krysta Harden looked at home as she pulled on a pair of rubber knee pants and ventured into a Tunica County corn field last Thursday.

Harden, sworn in as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture last August, toured two MP Farms tracts in North Tunica County, en route to keynoting the 2014 Delta Council Annual Meeting in Cleveland on Friday, May 30.

The 54 year old Georgia native, born into a peanut farming family, saw demonstrations here of the kind of conservation and crop management practices that are an important part of the 2014 Farm Bill (see related story, Page 2).

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