Southerners and Westerners don’t appreciate the family farming tradition as highly as Midwesterners, said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, in promoting Bill Northey, his state’s agriculture secretary, for a top job at USDA such as deputy secretary or undersecretary. Former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is President Donald Trump’s choice for agriculture secretary.
“I’d be happy if one of those (officials) was Northey,” said Grassley during a teleconference. The family-farming tradition of the Midwest “wasn’t appreciated or protected as much” when someone from another region sits in the secretary’s chair, he said. Grassley repeatedly has tried to restrict farm subsidies to small or medium-sized operations; Southerners have opposed those payment limits.
Northey told Agriculture.com that he has not been interviewed for a job at USDA but he was confident that leaders of USDA will be broader than one region. During the inaugural weekend, sources told The Hagstrom Report of three candidates for deputy secretary: Charles Herbster, the chair of Trump’s campaign agriculture advisory committee; AG Kawamura, former California agriculture director and a member of the Trump agriculture committee; and Indiana agriculture director Ted McKinney. The sources also said Kip Tom, with farms in Indiana and Brazil, was a candidate for White House agricultural liaison.