Meet the people who might fill top environmental jobs in an Obama administration 8

Energy | EPA | Agriculture | Interior | Climate Czar

The secretary of agriculture oversees food and farm policy, and is charged with everything from securing food safety to promoting agricultural trade to fighting hunger. The USDA inspects and grades meats and grains, administers crop and ethanol subsidies, hands out food stamps and disaster relief, runs land conservation programs, and oversees organic labeling. The U.S. Forest Service, with its 190 million acres of forest and grassland, is also under the department's purview. Sustainable-food guru Michael Pollan recently argued that our fossil fuel-dependent food system can't go much longer without a locavorous overhaul. An innovative thinker in this position would help.

Tom Vilsack.

Tom Vilsack
The former Iowa governor and presidential candidate fits the classic mold for secretary of agriculture: a popular leader from a farm state (though he grew up in Pittsburgh). Vilsack supported Hillary Clinton in the Iowa primary, and if she had won the nomination, he'd be ordering Secretary of Ag business cards right now. His decidedly moderate record on farm policy may not appeal to Obama, but, like the Democratic candidate, Vilsack strongly supports corn ethanol, at least as a bridge to cellulosic ethanol. He instituted some new regulations on Iowa's industrial hog farms, though watchdogs say he should've done much more. And he understands that sustainable rural development means more than just commodity farming. His recent op-ed in the Argus Leader of South Dakota, home state to Obama confidante Tom Daschle, could be interpreted as a letter of interest for the job. (Read a Grist interview with Vilsack.)

Tom Buis.

Tom Buis
Tom Buis is president of the National Farmer's Union, the more progressive, small-farm-friendly of the two largest farm advocacy groups (the other is the Farm Bureau). He was senior agricultural policy advisor to Daschle, the Obama buddy and former Senate majority leader. And he was a Hoosier grain and livestock farmer with his brothers Mike and Jeff, who still run the family farm. Buis disappointed conservationists, hunger-relief advocates, and fruit-and-vegetable growers by endorsing last year's "sham reform" farm bill. Buis would be a don't-rock-the-boat (or the tractor?) choice on crop subsidies and food policy. Michael Pollan would not be happy.

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
South Dakota's sole representative in the U.S. House has made a name for herself as a prairie populist along the lines of Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D). Stephanie Herseth Sandlin directed the South Dakota Farmers Union Foundation before getting elected to the House, where she's a member of the Blue Dog Coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats. She sits on the House Agriculture Committee, a position that's allowed her send bountiful shares of federal crop subsidies back to her home state. If Obama wants substantial farm-policy reform, the House Ag Committee might be the last place to look. If he wants a charismatic leader who's pledged to put rural concerns before left-right ideology, Herseth Sandlin could be a possibility.

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