Vilsack USDA Appointment Herds Controversy in The Heartland

President-elect Joe Biden formally announced that Former Iowa Gov. and Obama-era Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has been selected to lead his cabinet’s department of agriculture at a Dec. 10 press conference in Wilmington, Del.

Among Biden’s cabinet choices, Vilsack’s selection has been among the most controversial. In Vilsack’s home state of Iowa, the pending appointment has herded the attention of farmers.

John Gilbert, who owns Iowa Falls-based Gibraltar Farms with his wife Beverly, is a vocal proponent of rebuilding America’s agriculture industry. The 71-year-old had varied opinions on Vilsack, who served two terms as the Governor of Iowa from 1999 to 2007.

“I will say that I always figured he was a competent secretary in the Obama Administration for 8 years,” Gilbert said. “I can understand the political calculus because it will be somebody who is easy to get confirmed.”

Gilbert, who is a prominent member of the Iowa Farmers Union, balanced his review of Vilsack’s previous performance as agriculture secretary in an interview with Media Milwaukee.

“One thing I do know about Tom is [that] he’s a vocal proponent of rural America,” Gilbert said. “I guess I’m not completely as excited as some of the other names that were getting passed around.

Vilsack’s name was floated for weeks as a contender for his former job by journalists, but the position was expected to go to Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge.

Fudge, a prominent Black congresswoman who serves on Biden’s transition team and represents  an inner-city Cleveland congressional district was named as Biden’s secretary of housing and urban development.

Leftist groups expressed clear disappointment with Biden’s pick of Vilsack to lead the department for a second time.

Progressive organization Friends of the Earth U.S. tweeted that Vilsack was an “agribusiness lobbyist with a tarnished record on civil rights, consolidation & the environment.”

“We need a bold reformer at USDA — not a high-paid lobbyist who will do industrial agriculture’s bidding,” Friends of the Earth said.

In 2017, shortly after Obama left The White House, Vilsack was named the CEO and president of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, a lobbying group that represents the “global trade interests of U.S. dairy producers,” according to its website.

The former USDA secretary has been under-fire by progressive groups for a controversial record  on civil rights and his post-Obama reputation as a dairy lobbyist.

“We’re glad to see @RepMarciaFudge in the cabinet, but she lobbied to be the Ag. secretary.”

It’s insulting that, instead of a progressive black woman, @JoeBiden & @Transition46 chose Vilsack, who covered up racial discrimination last time he had the job,” progressive group Sunrise Movement’s official account tweeted.

The organization is referring to a 2019 The Counter article, “How USDA distorted data to conceal decades of discrimination against Black farmers,” that summarized Vilsack’s performance as Secretary of Agriculture during the Obama Administration.

Vilsack has long-been criticized, in recent years, for that data and for the firing of former USDA official Shirley Sherrod.

Sherrod, who is a Black agriculture advocate, made headlines after she was fired and then offered a new job within the Obama administration in 2010.

According to a 2010 article from The New York Times, Sherrod was fired after controversial comments were made at an NAACP banquet and caught by conservative commentators.

Back in Vilsack’s home in Iowa, a lot has changed since he left the nation’s agriculture  department.

Thousands of farms have shuttered. Schoolchildren are struggling with widespread hunger at massive rates. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the future of Iowa family farmers.

One of them is John Gilbert.

“You can’t spend 8 years in a job and not expect some baggage.”

In the coming months, Americans — and Vilsack himself — will find out if it’s too much to carry.