By Jordan Mitkowski, ASU sustainable food systems graduate student
At the end of April 2024, the master's cohort of the ASU Sustainable Food Systems program had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. to strengthen our understanding of policy and focus on the contributing sectors that play a part in changing the food system. The complexity of food and agricultural issues is no stranger to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), but every complex issue invokes the need for more extraordinary solutions. Solving these issues requires many innovative minds and dedicated partnerships who are equally passionate and motivated to create solutions. An active and crucial participant in the fight for agriculture and food system solutions is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA’s work coordinates policy with agriculture and food system challenges through the established position as Senior Agriculture Advisor to the Administrator. This role also serves as the liaison between the USDA and EPA, consisting of daily communications between the two organizations. As EPA's current trusted Senior Advisor appointee, Rod Snyder secures the development of strategies to address agricultural and food system challenges as someone devoted to ensuring a sustainable pathway model for all environmental concerns, especially agriculture and food systems.
The Making of a Quality Advisor and Organization
Snyder assumed the role of the EPA's Senior Advisor two and a half years ago during the fall of President Biden's first term in office. Before this, he garnered extensive experience in public policy positions and leadership roles in the nonprofit sector, notably at Field to Market. Snyder's deep understanding of the EPA's history and the significance of its connection with the USDA is a testament to his knowledge and experience. There was a recognition in the 1990s of how agricultural and food production issues that the EPA faces often can be too complex for many individuals who don’t have a strong background in agriculture, food production, and rural communities, which leads to communication getting lost in translation. EPA rectified the problem by adding a senior political appointee creative position focusing exclusively on agriculture issues and reporting directly to the Administrator. As a result, the EPA has implemented this role for the past twenty years because it has effectively served the agency and the food and agriculture sector.
The Present and Future of EPA
What makes a successful organization is whether leadership truly understands and is aware of the depths of the problems, which Snyder praised the head of EPA for. He excitedly spoke about his boss, the EPA Administrator Michael Regan, due to his personal connection to agriculture. Regan recognizes matters presented to the EPA and why they are essential to farmers, ranchers, and rural communities because he comes from a family of farmers and agriculturalists from Eastern North Carolina. According to Snyder, Regan has been a tremendous champion of trying to bridge EPA and farmers. While historically, the EPA and USDA have not had the closest of relationships because of different missions, Regan and USDA's Secretary Tom Vilsack continue to work together to try and find commonality and ways to work together efficiently.
In an expansion of these organizations, Administrator Regan announced the creation of a permanent office of Agriculture within Rural Affairs at the EPA that will include ten people focusing strictly on food and agriculture issues. Snyder expressed how exciting it is to enact this new office because, for many years, there has only been one political appointee who changed every six to twelve months with the new administration. Establishing this new office generates an increasing bandwidth of work that can be accomplished and creates continuity by having a permanent presence. As for the current positions, Snyder and his special assistant Felipe Afanador are the political appointees under the Biden administration, and the rest of the career staff remain employed regardless of who is in office.
EPA's Focus
The EPA strives to protect people and the environment from crucial health risks by developing and enforcing environmental regulations. The agency's portfolio of daily issues is divided logically by major program offices: air, water, chemicals, and land. They approve air emissions and air quality plans, especially in California, due to the state's involvement in agriculture. In addition, the EPA also manages the removal of fuel standards—the blending of renewable fuels into the U.S. fuel supply commerce—and sets the required volume regulations for that. A new, current water focus is on the water quality impacts from animal feeding operations across the country within the context of EPA's program and partnership with USDA. Another vital area for water regulations is wetlands and water in America. Land and emergency management involves topics such as food loss and waste by trying to convert food waste from landfills because of methane emissions. A designated Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee works with the EPA to advance climate goals and create a more resilient food system in the US. Lastly, the chemical regulation is mainly through pesticides; every single pesticide registered in the US must be reviewed, approved, and labeled by the EPA, with their scientists analyzing these products and their impacts on human health and the environment.
Inspiring One Another
Through Snyder's inspirational conversation with us, I felt the motivation for all of us become more fueled than when we first arrived in D.C. Hearing from someone with a similar perspective and mindset showed us that there is hope for a more sustainable future. He expressed, "Working at the intersection of agriculture and environment has been—not just a passion—but it feels like a mission and cause for me." This statement resonated with me because creating a better future for us and the next generations starts in the present moment with all of us. I agree with Snyder that we must figure out how to find solutions without breaking the system because there are "right and wrong ways for us to chart a path to feed people." As much as he was inspired by all of us in the Sustainable Food Systems cohort, we were equally in awe of the continuous work Rod Snyder does for the EPA to solve issues contributing to our food systems and climate crisis.
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.