Biden Plans To Bring Vilsack Back To USDA Despite Criticism From Reformers
Vilsack served as secretary of agriculture during the Obama administration and has been a trusted adviser to President-elect Joe Biden. But critics say his time has passed.
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If Biden hoped that the two camps both would welcome Vilsack's return, he's likely to be disappointed. Vilsack is currently chief executive of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, an organization backed by the dairy industry.
Advocates seeking to reform USDA to better assist low-income Americans have said a Vilsack nomination would strengthen a status quo they say favors large corporate farm interests.
"Vilsack has made a career of catering to the whims of corporate agriculture giants — some of whom he has gone to work for," said Mitch Jones, policy director for Food and Water Watch, an environmental advocacy group.
Ricardo Salvador, director of food and environment for the Union of Concerned Scientists, says Vilsack "handled an impossible job well" in his previous tenure at the USDA. But Salvador says the situation now demands someone new. "If we measure what we need against what he accomplished, he falls short," Salvador says.
Vilsack grew up in Pittsburgh and was trained as a lawyer but became acquainted with agriculture as Iowa's governor from 1999 to 2007.
He takes over a department that traditionally has been focused on the well-being of farmers. Sonny Perdue, the current secretary, referred to farmers as the department's "customers" and told the department's employees that "our mission is to provide our farmers, ranchers, foresters and producers with what they need, when they need it."
Over the past two years, as farmers coped with the impact of the Trump administration's trade war and the coronavirus, Perdue's department sent them a record-breaking flood of government aid. In 2020 alone, direct federal payments to farmers are expected to reach $46 billion, far exceeding the amount of farm subsidies in any previous year.
