By Matt Hargis, ASU sustainable food systems graduate student
The ASU Sustainable Food Systems graduate student cohort kicked off their 2024 Washington DC immersive with a bang, meeting first with none other than the Secretary of Agriculture himself, Tom Vilsack. The Secretary generously offered to start his week with USDA NextGen scholars, potential future leaders of his agency.
As the Secretary greeted us, he opted to remain standing, looking upon us with a paternalistic curiosity and calmness. At ease, the Secretary gave a speech on the agency’s priority areas, the Biden administration’s vision of the future of agriculture, and the role of the USDA in achieving that vision. What the Secretary mused was a tacit acknowledgement of some of the agency’s past missteps regarding equity or Former Secretary Earl Butz’s “go big or go home” mentality that led to widespread mistrust and farm consolidation at the expense of small and historically underserved producers.
Secretary Vilsack boasted the new climate smart commodities program and expressed commitment to address the environmental effects of American agriculture. What was presented was a historically progressive USDA agenda, perhaps not seen since the agency’s creation by President Lincoln as ‘The People’s Department.’ Indeed, the Secretary demonstrated how this agency touches every corner of society from bustling metropolitan cities to sparse rural communities. Beyond equity and farm loss, nutrition security was discussed as the third major priority area, a refreshing policy change that emphasizes nutrient density rather than simple caloric need. The Secretary keenly acknowledged, “efficiency isn’t resiliency” with respect to the food system.
After remarks, Secretary Vilsack opened to questions from students on a range of follow-up interests. As time drew well past our scheduled period, I became concerned, what will happen to this iteration of the USDA should an ideologically different administration come to power in the future? I eagerly raised my hand to see if I could discover what Secretary Vilsack has been doing to preserve and foster this important work.
The secret sauce, in the view of the Secretary, is the career employees who dedicate their lives to public service, not at the mercy or whims of changing political tides. Going further, the Secretary also noted that diversity of thought is not only more representative of the populace, but also yields better decision-making. Professional development initiatives, such as the NextGen program, are one such tool to incorporate more diversity within the ranks of the career staff. Integrating diversity within the fabric of the agency is a critical task designed to ensure that the progressive priorities of this administration persist and flourish for many years to come.
Any fears and doubts I may have harbored about the sustainability of the USDA’s policy agenda in an uncertain future were eased by the Secretary’s prognosis and reinforced by glancing around the room at my peers. My colleagues constitute a considerable diversity of thought, backgrounds, cultures, and identities all brought together, at least in part, by the USDA NextGen program. In that moment I realized that the Secretary’s vision was already set in motion and that we were all a part of the plan.
This blog is part of a series from the Swette Center’s annual Food Policy Immersion, a required course in their two graduate programs. Students met with federal food and agriculture focused officials at USDA, the White House, and Congress alongside many other important influencers of policy in industry and non-profits.