IARN — The Iowa Soybean Association has announced its support of Tom Vilsack as the next U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
President Joe Biden’s selection of Vilsack to lead USDA is a move that has received broad support from agriculture. Vilsack, who is Iowa’s former governor, previously served as U.S. Ag Secretary for all eight years of the Obama Administration before heading up the U.S. Dairy Export Council.
Iowa Soybean Association President Jeff Jorgenson of Sidney says it’s relieving for Iowa producers to have a local, familiar face in such a prominent position for agriculture.
“For Iowa, how is Tom Vilsack being the Secretary of Agriculture again not a win for us? Being the (former) governor,” Jorgenson said, “he knows Iowa. I had one board member that said the last time he saw Vilsack, he could say he was from whatever county in the state and (Vilsack) knows where that’s at. There’s a lot of folks in the rest of the country that can say where they are from and (Vilsack) will not have as good of a feel of where these folks are from, what they are dealing with, and those types of things.”
Jorgenson says Vilsack is uniquely suited for the position and that he expects him to hit the ground running on a host of issues important to soybean farmers.
“My hope is that our international trade and export opportunities expand,” Jorgenson said. “My feel is that he’s going to have a really good handle on that. We definitely have some things we want to do there. Obviously, our exports are working for us right now. We still need to keep that going forward. We had a little bit shorter crop in the 2020 year, but we’re going to hopefully raise another large crop in the state of Iowa. We need those opportunities to move what Iowa agriculture is producing.”
The Senate Agriculture Committee has scheduled a confirmation hearing for Vilsack. The committee meets at 9:30 a.m. CT on Tuesday, February 2nd to consider the nomination. Reports say Vilsack is expected to enjoy a smooth confirmation process.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network
