Following a public announcement that President-elect Joe Biden tapped former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to return to USDA, dairy industry leaders expressed their confidence in his ability to do the job well. Vilsack, who is currently leading the check-off funded U.S. Dairy Export Council, served as a two-term agriculture secretary under President Barrack Obama.
“Tom Vilsack has dedicated his life to service. While we will miss him as a colleague and friend, all of us in the dairy community who have had the opportunity to work with him over the past four years know his deep passion and commitment to rural America and his understanding of its interdependence with our urban and suburban communities,” said National Milk Producers Federation CEO Jim Mulhern. “The challenges that lie ahead are many – from a battered farm economy to climate change, the environment and sustainability, to nutrition and the importance of addressing the nation’s growing food insecurity, as well as the need for better trade policy and expanded markets abroad, and much more. No one is better suited to tackle these challenges than Tom Vilsack.”
Dairy Management Inc. CEO, Tom Gallagher, joined Mulhern in expressing his confidence in Vilsack’s ability to lead USDA well.
“We strongly endorse President-elect Biden’s choice of USDEC President and CEO Secretary Tom Vilsack as the next chief of the Department of Agriculture and applaud the decision to select a true leader in American food and agriculture,” Gallagher said in a statement. “Over the many years Secretary Vilsack has worked closely with agriculture, whether as mayor of a small town, Governor of Iowa, Secretary of Agriculture or through active involvement in many agricultural groups, he has shown leadership and vision in strengthening the American agricultural economy and helping provide safe and nutritious food for all Americans.”
According to Michael Dykes of International Dairy Foods Association, Vilsack’s prior experience and relationship with Biden positions him uniquely for success.
“I am pleased to see Tom Vilsack be named Secretary of Agriculture. I’ve known him as a friend, a co-worker in the dairy industry, and I knew him when he was a secretary of agriculture before,” Dykes says. “He’s a seasoned veteran who will be a walk in the door, know what needs to be done knows how it works. He’ll know how to work with Congress and work with the White House.”
Additionally, Dykes points out that Vilsack knows rural America as well as the food and agriculture industry.
“He knows we’re 20% of the economy with 45 million jobs,” he says. “He knows how to get the job done. I’m confident he’ll do a good job.”
Dykes also says history indicates farmers will do well under Vilsack’s leadership.
“We look back during Vilsack’s term, and we had record exports, we had record farm income, and we had some very good years in agriculture,” he says. “He knows important to listen to rural America. He’ll bring a steady hand to the wheel for President Elect Biden when he’s at USDA. And as I said my statement yesterday, he has my full support. We stand ready to help him with anything we can and their dairy industry needs.”
Lastly, Dykes adds that Vilsack is uniquely suited to help incentivize farmers to participate in Biden’s climate change initiatives.
“He also will be integral to President Elect Biden on climate change, which will be an important feature of this administration,” he says. “He knows what it takes to implement those things all the way down to the farm level, and how to do these kinds of things in a way that has something in it for the farmers, so that the farmers are able to begin to do those things at the production level at the farm and all the way through the supply chain.”
