President Trump has selected Indiana mega-farmer Kip Tom, a conservative Republican long rumored to be in the running for an administration appointment, to become the U.S. representative to the UN agencies for food and agriculture, said the White House on Wednesday. Senate confirmation is needed before Tom can report, with the rank of ambassador, to the post in Rome, where he would deal with the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
A seventh-generation farmer, Tom is chairman of Tom Farms LLC, which operates on 17,000 acres — 26.5 square miles — of land in Indiana and Brazil, growing corn, soybeans, and hybrid corn seed. It is one of the largest farms in Indiana, and Tom has a reputation as an innovative producer. He ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in a U.S. House district in 2016 and served on Trump’s agricultural advisory committee during the fall presidential campaign.
“The U.S. Mission in Rome serves as a link between the U.S. government and the Rome-based international organizations,” said the State Department. “With staff representing the Departments of State, Agriculture, and the Agency for International Development, the U.S. mission specifically works to advance UN efforts in the areas of emergency food assistance, food safety standards, agriculture, fisheries, forests, and financing for rural development.” The post has been vacant since 2016.
Last September, at the Indianapolis rally where Trump unveiled his tax cut package, Tom was chosen to serve as a living example of the peril posed by the “death tax,” as foes like to call the estate tax. Trump proposed repealing the estate tax. Instead, Congress doubled the exemption from estate taxes to $11.2 million — double that for married couples — for eight years. The provision expires at the end of 2025.
“Mr. Tom serves on the boards of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, the Future Farmers of America Foundation, and the National 4-H Foundation. He is the recipient of the 2015 Agriculture Future of America Ag Leader of the Year Award,” said the White House.