The American agricultural sector is watching with some anticipation the choice of President-elect Joe Biden for the USDA secretary position. Biden has already put forward candidates for several important ministries; the one for the USDA is expected soon. Biden will be inaugurated on January 20.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considered influential and extensive, partly because of the food packages for millions of Americans at food banks. The contents of these packages are purchased, paid for, and distributed by the USDA.
The nutrition program is renewed every five years and is an important source of income for America’s agricultural sector. Furthermore, the USDA is one of the larger ministries because it also oversees all Park Rangers, forest rangers, and land managers of all American parks and natural areas.
In recent weeks, a handful of names for potential ministers circulated in American agricultural trade journals, but the Biden team has since narrowed the search down to two frequently mentioned contenders: former Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota) and Representative Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio).
Last week, the magazine Politico called Heitkamp (65) Biden’s “top choice.” She has, among others, the support of Tom Vilsack, the former head of the dairy industry during the Obama administration. Vilsack is now Biden’s key informal advisor on rural and agricultural policy. Vilsack himself is also mentioned, but Democrats are ‘against’ him because he is white, male, and considered average.
Former Senator Heitkamp was a long-time member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and is regarded as a traditional Democrat: everyone in agri-America knows her. Heitkamp has a reputation for being politically conservative and sometimes goes against the Democratic Party’s line.
For example, she supported the controversial construction of an oil pipeline through natural areas in Alaska and opposed laws restricting gun possession. Her appointment is expected to pose no problem during Senate hearings.
Her rival is Representative Marcia Fudge (68). She has important backing from the Congressional Black Caucus. Fudge is a former chair of this lobbying group of Black politicians in the U.S. Supporters say she would place new emphasis on the role of the USDA in urban areas, not just in rural regions.
Marcia Fudge has the support of dozens of anti-hunger groups, labor unions, and left-wing activists. She is seen as one of the candidates who could strengthen Biden’s call for ‘more women, more Black people, more progressives’ in his cabinet, like his Vice President Kamala Harris.
Fudge’s candidacy against Heitkamp also reflects the current ideological struggle within the Democrats: average-middle-class social democracy versus left-progressive modernism.
In American agricultural circles, these two candidates are also viewed as emblematic of future USDA policy: the traditional agricultural Midwest versus the urban East and West Coasts, the farmer versus the consumer, the producer versus agribusiness, traditional versus organic.
Moreover, the Food and Agriculture world in the U.S. has so far mainly been a realm of wealthy white men. A progressive Black woman as the Agriculture Secretary would be a breakthrough in the U.S.…