AG INSIGHT Vilsack returns to USDA leadership To say the Biden Administration’s secretary of agriculture has been able to hit the ground running would be an understatement. Confirmed for that position by the U.S. Senate on a 92-7 vote scarcely more than a month after the new administration took office, Tom Vilsack also led USDA for eight years under formerPresident Barack Obama. But Vilsack is under no illusion the job he is stepping back into will be a repeat of his earlier tenure. “I am a different person. And it is a different department,” he said at his confirmation hearing. Among other things, Vilsack noted the nation faces numerous challenges in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis, including rebuilding the U.S. economy from the pandemic-induced recession, getting food to hungry Americans and protecting frontline meatpacking and farmworkers. He also faces the seemingly conflicting goals of farmers and others who strongly support the use of ethanol and biodiesel and President Biden, who already has voiced his plan to shift the nation to electric vehicles to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Iowa, where Vilsack served as governor from 19992007 after earlier service as a state senator and Mayor of Mount Pleasant in the far southeastern part of the state, is the nation’s top producer of ethanol. As the longest-serving member of Obama’s cabinet, Vilsack also ranks second historically in his length of tenure in that position. Fellow Iowan James Wilson, a farmer and a professor of agriculture at what is now Iowa State University, holds the top spot. He served just under 16 years as secretary of agriculture from 1897-1913. Born at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, orphanage, Vilsack was adopted in 1951. After graduating from law school, he moved to Mount Pleasant, his wife Christie’s hometown. The couple have two adult sons and five grandchildren. Before his return to USDA, he served as President and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council from 2017-21 where he led that trade group’s global marketing, research and regulatory affairs activities. He also served as a strategic adviser to Colorado State University’s food and water efforts.
Input sought on climate-smart ag, forestry strategy USDA has asked for public input on developing a climate-smart agriculture and forestry strategy. Printed in the Federal Register, the request is considered a key step in implementing President Biden’s executive order on “Tackling the climate crisis at home and abroad.” The order states that, “America’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners have an im-
“America’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners have an important role to play in combating the climate crisis and reducing greenhouse gas emissions ....” 8
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