Donald Trump, who becomes president today, said he expects his nominee for agriculture secretary, Sonny Perdue, to accomplish great things at USDA. Farm groups, antihunger activists and the food movement have a formula for success for Perdue: Do things our way.
If confirmed by the Senate, Perdue will be in charge of a department with an annual budget of around $150 billion, a workforce exceeding 90,000 people and a portfolio ranging from farm subsidies and food stamps to the national forests and rural economic development. On the near horizon are possible fights over immigration, which could affect the pool of farm labor, and funding for nutrition programs. Looming beyond is the scheduled 2018 update of farm and food policy in the Farm Bill.
Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts said the committee “will work expeditiously and thoroughly to vet and consider” the nomination. “The bottom line is our farmers and ranchers need someone who can jump right in and get to work, and we won’t delay,” said Roberts, who described grim times in farm country after a three-year slump in commodity prices and farm income.
Farm groups said they expect Perdue, a two-term governor of Georgia, the No. 1 chicken state, and a veterinarian by training, to take their side against regulation. An American Farm Bureau Federation official pointed to the animal welfare rule for organic farms that was issued this week to the dismay of conventional agriculture: “Hopefully, we can roll back on that rule.” The president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Tracy Bruner, said, “In a time of increasing regulations and a growing government footprint, we have no doubt that Gov. Perdue will step in and stand up for rural America.”
The National Pork Producers Council said Perdue would promote farm exports and oppose regulation. It gave the back of its hand to Tom Vilsack, the former two-term governor of Iowa who stepped down as agriculture secretary a week ago. “You know, the last guy we had at the head of USDA was from the No. 1 corn, egg and pork-producing states in the nation and that didn’t do use much good,” said NPPC president John Weber, of Iowa.
The National Farmers Union urged USDA put more money into soil and water stewardship and “expand market opportunities for all types of agriculture,” a broader view of the sector than the large, mechanized farms that dominate food, feed and fiber output. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition said the “Trump movement” had an obligation to help small farmers, to give livestock producers a hand against meatpacker power, and to bring jobs to rural America.
“For far too long, corporations have been able to control agricultural policy through lobbying, taking unfair advantage of American farmers,” said the nonprofit Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA. “We will stand with farmers in holding the new administration accountable to following through on campaign promises to ‘drain the swamp.’”
The Jewish antihunger group Mazon appealed to Perdue “to become a strong supporter of federal nutrition assistance programs” which account for more than three-fourths of USDA spending. When Perdue was governor, “Georgia had a dismal record in addressing poverty,” said Mazon. “As Secretary of Agriculture, we have to hope that Gov. Perdue will show more consideration toward the millions of Americans experiencing hunger and poverty.”
Congress deadlocked on reauthorization of the $12 billion-a-year child nutrition programs last year, so the issue remains open. “We are hopeful Gov. Perdue will work to strengthen school meal programs and help ease funding and regulatory challenges,” said the School Nutrition Association, representing school food directors.
A food movement group, Food Policy Action, said Perdue’s record of food policy “is light on substance and poor on action. “We need strong leadership to reform our food policy, promote affordable, nutritious and safe food, fight hunger, safeguard our lands and clean water, and protect our farmers and farm workers, not someone who is weak on oversight and in the pocket of Big Ag.”
“Perdue is quintessential Big Ag,” said Ricardo Salvador of the Union of Concerned Scientists, who has linked food policy to social justice. “Based on his record, we expect him to hew closely to agribusiness interests and promote intensive export-oriented commodity production, cut incentives for conservation on farms that keep land and water viable for future generations, and ignore worker demands for better wages and protections.”
Perdue was the first of half-a-doze people that Trump interviewed for agriculture secretary in the longest search for a USDA chief since 1933. In a statement, Trump promised “great things” and “big results for all Americans who earn their living off the land” with Perdue at USDA.
The Environmental Working Group’s farm subsidy database says Perdue received $278,679 in crop subsidies from 1995-2004 and nothing since.