Vilsack up for agriculture secretary again
Pittsburgh native faces new challenges
WASHINGTON — Tom Vilsack was a familiar face to the senators who gathered Tuesday in a Capitol Hill committee room to consider his nomination by President Joe Biden to serve as agriculture secretary.
Yet Mr. Vilsack — a native of Pittsburgh who previously led the U.S. Department of Agriculture for nearly all of President Barack Obama’s two terms — confronted a dramatically different political and economic landscape this time around.
“It’s not lost on me, ironically, that this is Groundhog Day — and I realize that I’m back again,” Mr. Vilsack joked at the outset of his testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee, referring to the 1993 movie in which Bill Murray’s character relives the same day over and over again.
“But I also realize that this is a fundamentally different time and I am a different person, and it is a different department,” he said, appearing virtually before the committee.
Mr. Vilsack, who received a warm reception from members of both parties who urged his confirmation, would take the reins of a department tasked with lifting farmers and rural communities out of the depths of the COVID19 pandemic.
The nominee pledged, if confirmed once again, to continue delivering federal subsidies for the distribution of farm goods to food pantries. He would ensure payments reach farmers and take steps to protect farm laborers from the virus, he said.
“Clearly, COVID is on the minds of everyone, as it should be,” Mr. Vilsack said. Responding to a question from Sen. Bob Casey, DPa., he promised to make food assistance easier to obtain. “If we can expand access, if we can increase benefits, if we can make them more convenient, I think more people could be helped.”
He would also support longer-term initiatives — goals that he called “‘why not’ moments” for American farming. Those include using more sustainable practices to tackle climate change, building healthy and local food systems that address food insecurity and malnutrition, and ending discrimination in the USDA’s programs that have long ignored people of color, he said.
Mr. Vilsack acknowledged the farming economy had been struggling long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with some commodity prices falling during his latter years as secretary. Mr. Vilsack, who has served as president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council since February 2017, said he would strengthen domestic and foreign markets access to boost farm businesses.
Like Mr. Biden has done, Mr. Vilsack emphasized the economic value of environmental programs, including carbon sequestration, methane capture and reuse, and the recycling of agricultural waste. Those programs “can all create a more stable farm income and economy and can also support the jobs many farm families need,” he said.
Agriculture “is probably the first and best way to begin getting some winds in this climate area,” Mr. Vilsack said. “I think farmers are prepared for it, farmers are anxious to do it. If it’s voluntary, if it’s market-based, if it’s incentive-based, I think you will see farmers and ranchers and producers cooperate extensively.”
Mr. Vilsack said he would promote open markets abroad, in part by pressing the Biden administration to negotiate new free-trade agreements to keep American farmers globally competitive.
He was among the army of lobbyists pushing for the passage of the United StatesMexico-Canada Agreement, the updated North American trade deal approved by Congress in 2019 and put into effect in July 2020.
For much of the past four years, farmers faced uncertainty and falling prices due to trade tensions with China and other countries initiated by President Donald Trump.
In January 2020, Mr. Trump paused tensions with China and signed a partial trade pact aimed at boosting U.S. farm exports. But China, due to the global pandemic, fell short on those commitments in 2020.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, DMich., the incoming chair of the agriculture committee, said the nominee had “a proven track record and deep bench of experience to hit the ground running.” Ms. Stabenow previously worked with Mr. Vilsack at the USDA when she chaired the committee from 2011 to 2015.
Ms. Stabenow agreed with the nominee that the USDA’s climate programs need to be “voluntary, producer-led, and bipartisan.”
“The climate crisis poses the greatest long-term threat to the viability of our farm economy and our food supply,” Ms. Stabenow said. “While farmers are directly affected by climate change, they are uniquely positioned to be a part of the solution.”
Mr. Vilsack’s climate plans likely will build on the Trump administration efforts — which largely had built on Mr. Vilsack’s work at the USDA.
In February 2020, the USDA announced an “Ag Innovation Agenda” that included partnering with the private sector to improve farm productivity by 40% while cutting in half agriculture’s environmental footprint by 2050.
Agriculture accounts for about 9% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Still, Mr. Trump’s agriculture secretary, Sonny Perdue, made no mention of climate change or the impact of a warming climate on wetter, drier and hotter weather conditions. Mr. Vilsack, as secretary, established seven regional “climate hubs” to help farmers and ranchers adapt “to a changing climate.”
On Tuesday, Republicans expressed skepticism about the Biden administration’s climate priorities but deferred to Mr. Vilsack’s experience and knowledge.
Sen. John Boozman, RArk., said farming should “not be considered the problem” when it comes to climate change and urged Mr. Vilsack to push back against any moves from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to impose ‘heavyhanded, one-size-fits-all regulations” that mandate specific farming practices.