Appointment

I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me in my inbox this morning - lots of news about my former grad school advisor being named as the deputy director of the USDA. I try to refrain from posting or talking much about my grad school studies and my work now because frankly, agriculture policy and the economies of cow manure as an energy supply do not interest most people. I could really put someone to sleep if I blogged about it regularly, I'm sure. But I would like to tell you a little bit about Kathleen Merrigan and why I think she is a great fit for that position, and why it should possibly matter to you.

From Steph L.'s blog, http://www.ethicurean.com/2009/02/23/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like/

"Dr. Merrigan is a thrillingly unexpected pick. Currently the Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment MS and PhD Program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, she previously held a variety of policymaking jobs at the state, federal, and international level, including running the Agricultural Marketing Service of USDA under President Clinton. She also worked at Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture and at the Food Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. She was a staff member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry under Chairman Patrick Leahy and helped to write the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 that mandated national organic standards, later guiding the federal organic labeling program at the USDA."



I studied under Dr. Merrigan from 2004-2006 at Tufts' Friedman School. Kathleen is a huge supporter of alternative, organic and sustainable agriculture. While I am not anti- any of those things, I come from a very traditional agricultural background and have worked with and on farms where the implementation of some organic standards would be literally impossible. Idealism pervades the thinking of many alternative agriculturalists, and at a school filled with them, I found myself always arguing against at least 90% of my class as what I thought were 'realistic' expectations for agriculture. Kathleen was a great teacher and advisor. She never stiffled my opinion and used my counter arguments to produce some really great and lively debate in our classes. Though she is a huge supporter of alternatives to traditional agriculture, I do not think she is an opponent to traditional agriculture.


Why does this matter? Secretary Vilsack of the USDA is from Iowa, and very traditional agricultural thinker, supportive mostly of large industrial type farms and livestock production, which by the far the majority of ag production in this country. I think Obama's appointment of Merrigan is a great counter point to Vilsack, and will help to draw the USDA's attention to alternative agriculture methods. Why am I also in favor of this even though I love buying my cheap food at almost any grocery store I want? Because alternative forms of agriculture (organic, sustainable, IPM, whatever you want to call it) is often a very viable and preferable method for smaller farmers and creates premium markets for them to sell their products into. Small farms help our country maintain a diverse agriculture base, maintains open green spaces and provides local, fresh food supplies for local residents and in my opinion, we should support markets and programs that help small farms survive within our complex and huge traditional agriculture system.


So there you have it. You can pinch yourself and wake up from that little snooze you took while reading this post. But really, great appointment Obama.