Some more appointments speculation: this time about the Secretary of Agriculture. Some of the buzz suggests it might be former Iowa Governor and presidential candidate (remember that?) Tom Vilsack. My position: I agree wholeheartedly with Ezra Klein on the issue: “there’s only one real signal from this sort of a pick: Your subsidies are safe.”
It’s not so much that I’m worried about what Vilsack would symbolize if he does get the nod – I had no pretenses that we were in for anything other than business (and subsidies) as usual on this front. It’s more just a recognition of how ridiculous our current governmental approach to food really is. It’s not remotely surprising that Vilsack (or someone like him) will likely get the job. It stems from a fundamentally troubling approach to the entire question.
That we continue to even have a Department of Agriculture – when agriculture makes up an ever-vanishing subset of the economy – is a little peculiar. It definitely prioritizes the notion that policy in this area is about agricultural producers, instead of being about food consumers. The result is a food policy held hostage by a narrow industry with motivations that have nothing to do with the public good. And it’s tremendously discouraging.
This is certainly one area where if Obama turns out to represent a real change I will be both flabbergasted and absolutely ecstatic. Here’s hoping