Until very recently, speculation around who would take the top spot at Obama's USDA centered on former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, a champion of both genetically modified seed technology and farm-subsidy reform.
But now Vilsack's out of the running, the Des Moines Register reports. Evidently, a petition from the Organic Consumers Association helped sink his prospects.
What now? According to The Hill, two serious candidates remain, both farm-state legislators: Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Ag committee, and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.).
Peterson is widely reviled in sustainable-ag circles for his staunch defense of the federal farm subsidy program during the 2007-'08 farm bill debate. As he revealed in this comment to the Financial Times last year, Peterson sees little value in alternatives to chemical-intensive, monocrop ag:
For whatever reason, people are willing to pay two or three times as much for something that says "organic" or "local." Far be it from me to understand what that's about, but that's reality. And if people are dumb enough to pay that much then hallelujah.
In industrial-ag circles, Peterson has inspired considerably more admiration. Peterson harvested more in donations from agribiz interests than any other House member in 2008 by a substantial margin, Open Secrets reports. He reaped $300,000 from the "Crop Production & Basic Processing" and "Agricultural Services/Products" industries; the "dairy," "food processing," and "livestock" industries came through with $100,000 more.) In addition, agribusiness PACs ponied up $380,000.
It's hard to imagine a more old-boy, status-quo pick than Peterson. Would Obama really do this to us?
That raises the question of Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. What kind of USDA chair would she make? She's young (born 1970), and she grew up on a farm in South Dakota. She serves on the ag committee under Peterson. She's no Peterson when it comes to reeling in agribiz cash, but she does get some.
She (like Peterson) is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition of conservative democrats, and in fact was recently elected one of the group's three main leaders in the new Congress. Like many Blue Dogs, her passion for "fiscal conservatism" washes away on contact with ethanol, which she thinks deserves boat loads of taxpayer cash.
On the other hand, people in ag-policy circles tell me she supported a much stronger competition title than what made it into the 2008 farm bill; and she also supported stricter limits on the size of subsidy payments. Peterson fought both of those principles tooth and nail during 2008 farm bill negotiations.
What to make of it? It sure would be nice if Obama picked someone not under the heel of Big Corn as USDA chief -- someone with a holistic view of the U.S. food system, someone who doesn't behave as though the world exists to sop up industrially produced corn and soy.
I realize, as Steph Larsen has pointed out, that the deadening hand of realpolitik lies heavily on the process of picking the next USDA chief. Yet our food policy needs a Gorbachev -- and millions of folks expect Obama to deliver one. Of the two names being floated, one offers some promise, while the other looks like a a hardened apparatchik, a worthy heir to the one-time throne of Earl "Rusty" Butz.
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Comments
View as Flat
WWAGD?! Posted 11:28 am
24 Nov 2008
Solve Agribusiness...solve warming
If we want to reduce CO2 levels, nothing is more important than completely overhauling our agricultural systems.
The entire cycle of inefficiency begins with how we feed ourselves.
We need to put the ideas of Bill McKibben's Deep Economy into practice.
We have to break down the behemoth's into small manageable parcels with more control at the local level.
Local means oversight and participation. It means seeing where and how CO2 pollution begins and ends, not reading about it in a book or paper.
Luckily we can make these changes without waiting for Government or Agribusiness...we can do these things now, by zoning farmland in the exurbs and using local markets to buy food.
Texeme.Construct.Questioner
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Chris McMasters Posted 11:32 am
24 Nov 2008
This is bad news.
These two sound worse than Vilsack.
Chris McMasters
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Clare D Posted 12:06 am
25 Nov 2008
Peterson is yuck!
Peterson is worse than Vilsack from what I hear. At least Herseth-Sandlin is good on some important things, and might be young enough to still listen to reason.
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berniew1 Posted 2:09 am
25 Nov 2008
Fed. Ag. policies disastrous for small farmers
I'm a small farmer. For those like me current federal policies subsidizing big agribusiness concerns rather than helping real farm families has been disastrous. The system favors big, and subsidies to big agribusiness concerns and big timber companies, including access to subsidized cutting on public lands have driven small family farmers and timber businesses out of viability. The subsidy of GE crops and pesticide use likewise has had disastrous health consequences for the public, as well as harming family farmers who would pursue more rational, public beneficial methods.
While Herseth Sandlin appears better than Peterson, there should be other better options.
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Chrys Ostrander Posted 4:52 am
25 Nov 2008
Here are Some USDA Options
No Shortage of knowledge, vision and experience:
I am encouraged by and I support President-Elect Obama's proposed
rural and agricultural policies. The people Mr. Obama chooses to
hold key policy-making positions to carry forth his progressive
vision for rural America (as well as the rapidly developing realm of
urban agriculture) will be key in the success of the Obama
administration in this regard.
I urge you to suggest to Mr. Obama that he consider the following
individuals for US Secretary of Agriculture, or, where appropriate
to a candidate's vitae, the following subordinate positions: Under
Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services; Under Secretary
for Food Safety; Under Secretary for Research, Education and
Economics; Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs;
Under Secretary & Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and
Environment; Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural
Service; Chief, Natural Resource Conservation Service.
YOUR SUPPORT CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
You can find your Congressional Delegation at:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
Send your picks to the Obama Transition Team at:
http://change.gov/page/s/ofthepeople
See:
http://thefutureisorganic.net/tfio-blog/?p=1
Kathleen A. Merrigan
Kathleen Merrigan is Assistant Professor, Friedman School of
Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and former head of
the USDA Agriculture Marketing Service. She is Director of the
Agriculture, Food and Environment Program and the Center for
Agriculture, Food and Environment at Tufts. She served twice as
Expert Consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, five years as Senior Analyst for the Henry A.
Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture and five years as
Senior science and technology adviser to Senator Patrick Leahy,
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and
Forestry. She holds a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Environmental
Planning and Policy.
James Alan Riddle
Jim Riddle [February 16, 1956] has worked his entire adult life in public service, dedicated to environmental protection and economic opportunity through the advancement of organic agriculture. Over the past 28 years, he has been an organic farmer, gardener, inspector, educator, policy analyst, author, activist, and avid organic eater. He and his wife, Joyce, live off the grid, producing all of their power from the sun, wind, and woods, living in an owner-built, energy efficient earth-sheltered home. They raise a huge garden and put up much of their own food. Jim was founding chair of the International Organic Inspectors Association, (IOIA), and co-author of the IFOAM/IOIA International Organic Inspection Manual, which has been translated into 5 languages and is used as the definitive text for the training of organic inspectors worldwide. Since 1991, he has trained hundreds of organic inspectors throughout the world. He developed standardized organic certification and inspection forms, which are used by numerous USDA-accredited certification agencies.
Jim Riddle served on the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Organic Advisory Task Force since 1991, and was instrumental in passage of Minnesota's landmark organic certification cost-share program, which is now included in the 2008 Farm Bill. He served 4 years as an elected Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor, and was a delegate for Jesse Jackson to the 1988 Democratic National Convention. He has been a member of the National Farmers Union since 1986. In 1987, he was founding president of the Winona Farmers Market Association, and continues his work on local food systems as founding chair and member of the Winona County Economic Development Authority.
Since January 2006, Jim Riddle has worked as the University of Minnesota's Organic Outreach Coordinator. He chairs the Leadership Team for eOrganic, a national multi-university Extension Service initiative developing electronic resources for organic farmers, researchers, and Extension Agents. He is a frequent speaker at agricultural conferences, and works closely with numerous State Departments of Agriculture, conducting training courses and providing resources for State employees. He is former chair of the USDA's National Organic Standards Board, and is a leading voice for organic agriculture and local food systems.
Fred Kirschenmann
A longtime leader in national and international sustainable
agriculture, Kirschenmann holds a doctorate in philosophy from the
University of Chicago, and has written extensively about ethics and
agriculture. He has served on several national and international
boards, including the USDA's National organic Standards Board. He is
a distinguished fellow of the Leopold Center for Sustainable
Agriculture at Iowa State University. Kirschenmann is from south
central North Dakota where he manages his family's 3,000 acre
certified organic farm. He assumed management of the family farm in
1976 when his father became ill. By 1980k the farm was certified
organic, one of the early operations to make the transition. The
farm is a natural prairie livestock grazing system that combines a
none-crop rotation of cereal grains, forages, and green manure.
Kirschenmann Family Farms has been featured in national publications
including National Geographic, the Smithsonian, Audubon, Business
Week, the LA Times and Gourmet magazine. In 1995, Kirschenmann was
profiled in an award winning video, "My Father's Garden," by Miranda
Productions, Inc.
Mark Ritchie
Mark Ritchie serves as Minnesota's Secretary of State, the state's
chief elections officer. Mark previously worked in the
administration of Minnesota's Governor Rudy Perpich in the
Department of Agriculture, responsible for addressing the economic
crisis facing family farmer and rural communities. Mark served for
twenty years as the president of the Institute for Agriculture and
Trade Policy (IATP), a Minnesota-based public research center
working with businesses, churches, farm organizations, and other
civic groups to foster long-term economic and environmental
sustainability in Greater Minnesota. In 2003 Mark led National
Voice, a national coalition of over two thousand community-based
organizations from across the country working together to increase
non-partisan civic engagement and voter participation. National
Voice, through their "November 2″ media campaign, registered over 5
million new voters nationwide, making the effort one of the largest
non-partisan voter mobilizations in our nation's history. Over four
hundred Minnesota churches, businesses, unions, schools, and
community groups participated in the campaign.
Gus Schumacher
Gus Schumacher, Jr. is the former Under Secretary, for Farm and
Foreign Agricultural Services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Gus was responsible for the domestic commodities, insurance and farm
credit operations of USDA. In addition, he was in charge of USDA's
international trade and development programs. Prior to his
appointment in August 1997, he was the Administrator of the Foreign
Agricultural Service for 3 years. Before coming to USDA, Mr.
Schumacher served as the Massachusetts Commissioner of Agriculture
and at the World Bank. From a farm family in Lexington,
Massachusetts, Mr. Schumacher attended Harvard College and the
London School of Economics and was a Research Associate in
Agribusiness at the Harvard Business School.
John Ikerd
Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri
Columbia, College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. John
was raised on a small dairy farm in southwest Missouri and received
his BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in agricultural economics from the
University of Missouri . He worked in private industry for a time
and spent thirty years in various professorial positions at North
Carolina State University, Oklahoma State University, University of
Georgia. John returned to the University of Missouri 1989, under a
cooperative agreement with U.S.D.A, to provide state and national
leadership for research and education programs related to
sustainable agriculture, retiring in early 2000. Since retiring, he
spends most of his time writing and speaking on issues relate to the
sustainability of agriculture. Author of the following books:
Sustainable Capitalism: A Matter of Common Sense - Small Farms are
Real Farms: Sustaining People Through Agriculture - Return to Common
Sense - Crisis and Opportunity: Sustainability in American
Agriculture.
Michael Ableman
Michael Ableman is the founder and executive director emeritus of
the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens, a non profit
organization based on one of the oldest and most diverse organic
farms in southern California, where he farmed from 1981 to 2001. At
its peak the farm served as an important community and education
center and a national model for small scale and urban agriculture,
hosting as many as 5000 people per year for tours, classes,
festivals, and apprenticeships. Under Ableman's leadership the farm
was saved from development and preserved under one of the earliest
and most unique active agricultural conservation easements of its
type in the country. He has lectured extensively throughout the U.S.
and in Europe. His work has been covered in National Geographic, on
National Public Radio's All Things Considered, in the Utne Reader,
Gourmet Magazine, and the L.A. Times. An award-winning film about
Ableman's work, Beyond Organic, narrated by Meryl Streep aired
nationally on PBS in 2001. Ableman has received numerous awards
including the 2001 "Sustie" Award for his work in sustainable
agriculture, Eating Well magazine's 1995 Food Hero Award, and the
1997 Environmental Leadership Award from the governor of the state
of California.
John Wesley Boyd, Jr.
John Wesley Boyd, Jr. (born September 4, 1965) is a Virginia farmer and civil rights activist. He owns and operates a 300 acre farm where he grows soybean, corn and wheat and currently raises a hundred head of beef cattle. For fourteen years Boyd was a chicken farmer in a Perdue Farms breeder program. He was a tobacco farmer for many years.[1] Boyd, a fourth-generation farmer, is president of the National black farmers association (NBFA) a non-profit organization based in Virginia that he founded in 1995.[2] In 2000, Boyd was the Democratic nominee for election to Virginia's 5th Congressional District running against Independent incumbent Virgil Goode. Goode later became a Republican.
In his role with the National Black Farmers Association, Boyd has worked closely with national leaders in government, agriculture organizations and rural groups nationwide. Boyd was appointed by then-Virginia Governor-elect Tim Kaine to serve as co-chair of his Policy Committee on Agriculture and Forestry during the transition period. In 2000, Boyd was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve on his administration's tobacco commission. Prior to that, he was appointed by then-Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore to serve on the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission.[3] His term lasted from July 1, 1999 until June 30, 2001.
Jon Tester
Jon Tester (born August 21, 1956) is an organic farmer and junior U.S. Senator from the state of Montana, and a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to his election in 2006, he served as President of the Montana State Senate.
Tester was born in Havre, Montana to Helen M. Pearson and David O. Tester. He grew up in Chouteau County, near the town of Big Sandy, Montana, on the same family land that his grandfather homesteaded in 1916. The small town is also the birthplace of Jeff Ament of rock band Pearl Jam, who played a concert in Missoula in support of Tester's U.S. Senate bid.
Tester grew up helping his family on their conventional farm, as well as helping run their butcher shop. Beginning in the late 1980s, Tester moved toward the more profitable organic farming; his family now grows organic wheat, barley, lentils, peas, millet, buckwheat, alfalfa and hay.
As a child, Tester lost the middle, index, and ring finger on his left hand in an accident while working with a meat grinder.
Tester has a Bachelor of Science degree in music from the University of Great Falls. He was subsequently a music teacher in the Big Sandy School District for a brief time, before returning to farming.
Tester served five years as chairman of the Big Sandy School Board of Trustees and served on the Big Sandy Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Committee and the Chouteau County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) Committee.
Tester was first elected to the Montana State Senate in 1998. He was elected the minority whip for the 2001 session. After being re-elected in 2002, he became minority leader for the 2003 session. In 2005, Tester was elected President of the Montana Senate, the chief presiding officer of the Montana Legislature's upper chamber.
His election as President marked a significant transition for Montana Democrats as they moved into the majority leadership of the Senate for the first time in more than a decade. Term limits would have prohibited Tester from running for state Senate for a third time. While serving as Senate President, Tester increased funding for public education and cut taxes for small business owners and the working poor. He also worked to make health insurance more affordable and require public utilities to use more renewable energy.
Tim LaSalle
Tim LaSalle is CEO of Rodale Institute, a 60-year-old organization
dedicated to researching and educating farmers and consumers about
sustainable agriculture. He holds his doctorate in depth psychology
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, a master's in populations genetics
from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a
bachelor of science degree from California Polytechnic State
University. For 12 years, he was a full professor at Cal Poly, where
he taught dairy science classes and served as the president and CEO
of California's Agriculture Education Foundation. While at Cal Poly,
LaSalle started and operated a conventional dairy near Templeton,
California. More recently, LaSalle served in an executive capacity
with various nonprofit organizations, including the Environmental
Center of San Luis Obispo County and the Allan Savory Center for
Holistic Management.
Tom Buis
Tom Buis became National Farmers Union's 13th president during the
organization's 104th anniversary convention in 2006. Buis has been
with the organization since March 1998, previously serving as vice
president of government relations. In this capacity, he oversaw the
NFU Washington, D.C., government relations office, which advocates
the interests of family farmers in Congress and the administration.
Prior to joining NFU, Buis served for nearly five years as senior
agriculture policy advisor to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
In addition, Buis worked for U.S. Rep. Jim Jontz, D-Ind., for nearly
five years as legislative assistant and legislative director. He was
also special assistant for agriculture to U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind.
Before moving to Washington, D.C. in 1987, Buis was a full-time
grain and livestock farmer in Putnam and Morgan Counties in West
Central Indiana, with brothers Mike and Jeff, who continue to
operate the family farm. Additionally, Buis serves as a member of
the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP)
executive committee. The international organization represents more
than 600 million farm families.
Katy Coba, Oregon's Director of Agriculture
Katy Coba becomes the 13th ODA director after being appointed by
Governor Kulongoski in January. She is no stranger to agriculture or
the department. Katy grew up on a Umatilla County wheat ranch and
spent nearly six years at ODA from 1989-1994. She was a special
assistant to the director and headed up ODA's marketing efforts
before joining Governor Kitzhaber's staff, where she was a policy
advisor on international trade. Immediately prior to rejoining ODA,
she served as interim director of the Oregon Economic and Community
Development Department. The following are excerpts of an interview
with Coba conducted by ODA Director of Communications Bruce Pokarney.
Denise O'Brien
Denise has been an organic farmer and farm activist for over 30
years. She and her husband ran a dairy farm for 20 of those 30
years. During this time Denise became interested in agriculture
policy that promotes the family farm. She has helped start several
progressive programs to fight corporate influence in farming. In the
1990's she lunched the Women, Food and Agriculture Network -- an
organization that supports women in farming. She almost won election
as Iowa's ag sec a few years ago.
Will Allen of Growing Power, 2008 MacArthur Fellow
Will Allen is an urban farmer who is transforming the cultivation,
production, and delivery of healthy foods to underserved, urban
populations. In 1995, while assisting neighborhood children with a
gardening project, Allen began developing the farming methods and
educational programs that are now the hallmark of the non-profit
organization Growing Power, which he directs and co-founded. Guiding
all is his efforts is the recognition that the unhealthy diets of
low-income, urban populations, and such related health problems as
obesity and diabetes, largely are attributable to limited access to
safe and affordable fresh fruits and vegetables. Will Allen received
a B.A. (1971) from the University of Miami. After a brief career in
professional basketball and a number of years in corporate marketing
at Procter and Gamble, he returned to his roots as a farmer. He has
served as the founder and CEO of Growing Power, in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, since 1995 and has taught workshops to aspiring urban
farmers across the United States and abroad.
Roger Johnson North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner
Roger Johnson, a third-generation family farmer from Turtle Lake,
ND, was elected North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner in 1996 and
re-elected in 2000 and 2004. Roger is currently the President Elect
of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA).
He played a leading role in the development of policies for the 2002
Farm Bill as chairman of the NASDA Rural Development and Financial
Security Committee. In this position, he will again be very involved
in drafting policy for the 2007 Farm Bill. In September 2005, Roger
was elected chairman of the Insterstate Pest Control Compact, a
36-state alliance committed to controlling plant pests, especially
in interstate situations. Among the issues of great importance to
Roger are economic growth and entrepreneurship in rural areas,
development of value-added agricultural industries, animal
agriculture and renewable energy resources. He believes that North
Dakota must develop new agricultural technologies, businesses, and
industries that will fuel further growth in the rural sector,
thereby ensuring that agriculture remains the backbone of the
state's economy.
Kathleen Sebelius Kansas Gov.
Kathleen Sebelius née Gilligan (born May 15, 1948) is currently
serving as the 44th Governor of Kansas. She is the second female
governor of Kansas, the 2008 respondent to the State of the Union
address, and chair-emerita of the Democratic Governors Association.
Sebelius was born Kathleen Gilligan and raised in a Roman Catholic
family in Cincinnati, Ohio. She attended the Summit Country Day
School in Cincinnati, followed by Trinity Washington University in
Washington, D.C., and later earned a Master of Public Administration
degree from the University of Kansas. She moved to Kansas in 1974,
where she served for eight years as a representative in the Kansas
Legislature and eight years as Insurance Commissioner before being
elected governor. In 2001 Sebelius was named as one of Governing
Magazine's Public Officials of the Year while she was serving as
Kansas Insurance Commissioner. In November 2005, Time named Sebelius
as one of the five best governors in America.
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin Rep. (D-S.D.)
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (born December 3, 1970) is an American
lawyer and Democratic politician, currently serving as the sole
member of the House of Representatives from South Dakota. She is the
youngest woman member of the House, and the first woman elected to
the House of Representatives from South Dakota. She won the at-large
seat in a special election on June 1, 2004. Prior to her 2007
marriage, she was known as Stephanie Herseth. Herseth Sandlin was
raised on her family's farm near Houghton (between Hecla and
Columbia) in a family active in South Dakota politics. Herseth
Sandlin received her undergraduate, graduate and law degrees from
Georgetown University, the latter in 1997. Prior to her election to
the House, Herseth Sandlin was Executive Director of the South
Dakota Farmer's Union Foundation, was in private practice as an
attorney, taught at the Georgetown University Law Center, and
clerked in the federal court system. Herseth Sandlin serves on four
committees in the 110th Congress - the House Committee on Veterans
Affairs, the House Committee on Agriculture, the House Committee on
Natural Resources, and the Select Committee on Global Warming and
Energy Independence. She is Chairwoman of the House Committee on
Veterans Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee. She also serves
on the Conservation, Credit, Energy and Research; and General Farm
Commodities and Risk Management Subcommittees on the Agriculture
Committee, as well as the Forests and Forest Health Subcommittee of
the Natural Resources Committee.
Rod Nilsestuen Wisconsin Agriculture Secretary
Rod Nilsestuen, 54, served as President and CEO of the Wisconsin
Federation of Cooperatives (WFC) for 24 years, building it into one
of the most respected cooperative trade associations in the country.
For the last four years, he has also headed the Minnesota
Association of Cooperatives, which has worked in an alliance with
WFC. He founded Cooperative Development Services, a first-of-its
kind model for new cooperative development, spearheaded the overhaul
of the Wisconsin Agriculture Marketing Act, and played a pivotal
role in the creation and establishment of the Wisconsin Milk
Marketing Board, a major dairy promotional program, as well as the
Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board and the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing
Board. Nilsestuen provided the initial leadership in the development
of Wisconsin Dairy 2020, the state's program to bring together a
cross-section of the dairy industry to better its economic and
political environment. For the past decade, under Rod's direction,
WFC coordinated and staffed the Midwest Dairy Coalition, an
industry-wide coalition dedicated to reforming federal dairy policy
to give Wisconsin and Midwestern dairy producers a more level
playing field. He is a founding chair of the National Rural
Cooperative Development Task Force, a pioneering effort that has
resulted in the creation of 17 co-op centers and hundreds of co-op
development projects nationwide. He is a past chair and board member
of the National Cooperative Business Association and the Cooperative
Foundation, and has also served on the Wisconsin Rural Leadership
Program, the Governor's Commission on Agriculture, and as initial
chair of the Coalition for Agricultural Research, Extension and
Teaching and the UW Board of Visitors. He is a 1970 graduate of
UW-River Falls and received a law degree from the University of
Wisconsin Law School in 1974. Nilsestuen and his wife Carol live in
DeForest and have three sons.
Kenneth Lee Salazar
Kenneth Lee Salazar (born March 2, 1955) is an American politician,
rancher, and environmentalist from the U.S. state of Colorado.
Salazar, a Democrat, served as state Attorney General before winning
a U.S. Senate seat in the 2004 Senate elections. He has been the
junior U.S. Senator from Colorado since January 2005. He and Mel
Martinez (R-Florida) were the first Hispanic U.S. Senators since
- They were joined by Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) in January
- He will become Colorado Senior Senator in January 2009, as his
colleague, Republican Senator Wayne Allard, has decided to not seeka third term. Serves on the Senate Committee on Agriculture,
Nutrition, and Forestry, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources.
Jill Long Thompson
Jill Lynette Long Thompson (July 15, 1952) is an American politician
and educator. Born in Warsaw, Indiana, she was raised on a family
farm outside of Larwill, Indiana, in Whitley County. She was the
Democratic Party candidate in the Indiana gubernatorial election,
2008 and was the first woman in Indiana history to be nominated for
governor by a major party. She lives with her husband Don Thompson,
a commercial airline pilot, in Marshall County on a farm near Argos,
Ind, where they planted 2,000 trees in two days as a symbol of their
love. Long graduated from Columbia City Joint High School, in
Columbia City, Indiana. Jill Long Thompson was the first in her
family to graduate from college. She earned an M.B.A. (1978) and
Ph.D (1984) in Business from Indiana University, and a B.S. in
Business from Valparaiso University (1974). Long served as a fellow
at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy
School of Government. She most recently served as CEO and Senior
Fellow at the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy.
Permalink
Stephanie Ogburn Posted 8:05 am
25 Nov 2008
Sinking Vilsack and a substantive question
Tom,
Why do you credit the OCA petition with helping take Vilsack's name off the list? The Register piece quotes him saying was never even contacted about being considered for the list. Perhaps WaPo and all the other insider Hill rags actually don't know what's up with the picks -- I sort of doubt the OCA petition had much to do with it.
As a food and ag enthusiast and consumer of media on food and ag, I'm relatively uninterested in the (rampant) speculation on who the pick may be and much more interested in seeing a knowledgeable journalist write on why the choice matters all that much -- I'd love for you, or someone who's been paying attention for a while, at least, to break down what happened at USDA under Glickman versus, say, Veneman, and report intelligently about the influence the department head really has on how food and ag policy plays out.
Stephanie
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Tom Philpott Posted 11:27 pm
25 Nov 2008
Great questions, Steph
The OCA stuff is scuttlebut I heard; I've also heard (this bit from Ferd Hoefner) that commodity groups opposed Vilsack. It doesn't seem to matter much that the Obama team never contacted Vilsack; they floated his name widely, and evidently decided they didn't like the way it went over.
True, the USDA chief doesn't write the farm bill; s/he interprets and executes it. (The USDA does come up with draft before debate starts; Congress is free to ignore it.) Colin Peterson recently said he doesn't want the job, on the grounds that his current post (chair of the house ag committee, which exerts huge influence over the farm bill) is more powerful. He's surely right about that.
I think people are viewing the pick as a proxy for whether or not Obama plans to deliver real change. But the real action might be in his economic picks. More on that soon.
Victual Reality
Permalink
mkeating Posted 2:11 am
26 Nov 2008
How USDA operates
I agree a lot with what Stephanie says. Whether or not Vilsack was under serious consideration for the Secretary's job, he sure wasn't going to tell the newspaper about it! Too many downsides: he would appear to be petitioning for the job and, if he didn't get it, he would appear to have been passed over. I agree that the decision making process is very closely guarded and that 95% of what we hear is speculation (not from Tom, of course!)
I'll respond to Stephanie's inquiry about the Secretary's role in the decision making process. I've written about this before; I worked as a mid-level staffer at USDA between 1998 and 2003 in two sustainable ag hotspots: organic standards and farmers markets.
The Department works this way: there are two groups of decision makers: the political appointees and the career civil servants (bureaucrats). The political appointees (several hundred positions that are named by the President) set the agenda: this is what we want to get done, this is how we are going to get it done. The bureaucrats (several thousand people in DC and around the country and world) make that happen. This is that Unitary Executive thing that Dick Cheney likes the talk about: When the President talks, people listen (and do). Naturally, Congress has a powerful presence because it writes the authorizing legislation. Actually, because no President cares very much about agriculture (they tend to have a lot on their minds) and some Senators and Congressmen owe their positions to agricultural interests, Congress has far more say over what happens at USDA than they do at most other Cabinet Departments. Do you think anybody on Capitol Hill was calling up Rumsfeld and telling him how to do his job? Congress does have a lot to say about running USDA - the senior administrative building is named for a former Chairman of the House Ag Committee, not a former Secretary. That being said, the concentration of power in the Executive branch means that the Secretary can thumb his nose at Congress to a considerable degree: look at the COOL story following the 2002 Farm Bill.
So, the Secretary enjoys enormous discretion to set the agenda and the pace at which things get done. When the Secretary wants something, it happens. That doesn't mean that the Scertray gets what he/she wants, but it means that the full force of USDA's resources will be directed at achieving that goal. Anybody in the chain of command who operates differently will be sidetracked. If the Secretary is mute on a subject, its fate is in the hands of the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy may be cozy with that constituency because of a revolving door relationship, or they may be unfamiliar/antagonistic towards that constituency (think National Organic Program here, though kudos on the pasture rule). Mostly the bureaucracy likes to play king of the sandbox and re-create their little world to their own imagination. Outsiders (meaning citizens) need not interfere. The political appointees generally don't care what the bureaucrats do on their own time, as long as the Executive Branch marching orders are being met. One exception: bad publicity. When the bureaucrats mess up enough to create a public stink, the political people rush in, say they don't know how this happened, promise it won't happen again, and privately tell the bureaucrats to make sure it doesn't happen again (even if that mean that NOTHING happens in that area at all).
One thing has changed enormously since my tenure at USDA: the public is more aware and invested in sustainable agriculture issues than ever before. This interest is going to continue to grow, because people discover that there really is something to this whole food, local farms way of life: it actually works, which you can't say for the agribusiness model. This will result in an increasing degree of leverage over what happens both at USDA and on Capitol Hill. The sustainable agriculture community should be very proud of the achievements in the 2008 Farm Bill. I predict that an agribusiness friendly individual will become Secretary of Agriculture but several very pro-sustainable ag types will gain senior administrative positions. Remeber that there were people at USDA like Richard Romminger and Paul Johnson in the last Democratic Administration. This time, those people in senior positions will have their hands a lot less tied than those fellows had, and they will be able to do a lot of good. I can't help but feel that an enormous cloud is lifting from DC and I'm allowing myself to feel very optimistic about the potential. I know this for sure: when sustainable agriculture gets a level playing field, we leave the agribusiness model in the dust y every measurable standard EXCEPT corporate profits.
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mkeating Posted 7:55 am
26 Nov 2008
Correction: how USDA operates
Taking a second look at my post, I realized that I slighted too many conscientious, dedicated people working within the bureaucracy. There are many individuals within USDA who are committed to upholding the law and serving the public and they provide objective, first class service. Not to name names, but consider Jill Auburn of the SARE Program and Cathy Greene at ERS as prime examples. They've managed to steer clear of political pressure and bureaucratic inertia and perform with exceptional professionalism. I shouldn't have overlooked this subset of the bureaucracy, since it's a quite sizable one - and they've had a very rough eight years!
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Tom Philpott Posted 8:13 am
26 Nov 2008
Thanks, MKeating
Very interesting and enlightening comments.
Victual Reality
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mtvyfan Posted 8:18 am
04 Dec 2008
Why not Senator Jon Tester (D-MT)?
Senator Tester is currently the ONLY certified organic farmer in the Senate to date. He is smart, works really hard for Montanans and is probably one of the most ethical Senator on the hill. He would have a working knowledge of farmer's plights and would stand up to agribusiness rather than rolling over and showing his belly. He is the natural choice. Even though I would hate to lose him in Montana, it would be better for the country if he was Ag Secretary.
"For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain, until then may I too abide, to dispel the misery of the world." - Shantideva
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