Super Eco

Photo credit: Obama-Biden Transition Project

Tom Vilsack has been governor of Iowa since 1999, and was named as Barack Obama's nominee for United States Secretary of Agriculture in December 2008. He was confirmed by the Senate on January 21, 2009.

Vilsack was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and abandoned at birth. He was adopted by Bud and Dolly Vilsack, who sent him to a preparatory school in Pittsburgh, Shady Side Academy and went on to earn his BA and JD degrees from Hamilton College in New York and Albany Law School. He moved to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, his wife Christie's hometown, upon graduation to work at her father's law practice. He began his political career in 1987 by running for mayor of Mount Pleasant, then in 1992 was elected to the Iowa State Senate. His work in the state senate was heavily focused on worker's rights and health care; one law he helped pass was to provide health care coverage for workers while changing jobs.

As governor, Vilsack's major decision included vetoing (and later being overridden) on Iowa House file 2351, a bill to restrict Iowa's use of eminent domain; and forcing passage of the Grow Iowa Values Fund, a $500 million appropriation which gave businesses grants to create high-income jobs. He has also been a strong supporter of ethanol development, chairing both the Governors Ethanol Coalition and the National Governors Association's committee on Natural Resources.

As Secretary of Agriculture, Vilsack would oversee farm programs, school lunch and nutrition programs, food stamps, the forest service, and meat and poultry inspections. During confirmation hearings, he said he would encourage the purchase of locally-grown produce; find ways to increase farmers' incomes; and pursue the development of new fuel sources to produce ethanol (though he failed to say that he would support Federal initiatives to support corn-based ethanol).

Notable Eco Activity

Tom Vilsack is criticized for his close ties to "Big Corn"; industrial farms which grow corn in a monoculture and receive government subsidies; and Monsanto, the world\'s largest GMO seed producer. The Organic Consumers Association opposes his positions for a number of reasons, chiefly his strong support for genetically modified crops and the companies which produce them. They point to his award from the Biotechnology Industry Organization (made up of companies whose business is centered on genetically modified agriculture) as Governor of the Year in 2001. Opponents of cellulosic ethanol report that he would like to commit over $40 billion a year to subsidizing its production; though there is some hope in sustainable agriculture communities over his support for separation distances between GMO and non-GMO crops (a big problem for the wind-pollinated crops which make up a large proportion of GMO agriculture) and his previous strong stand on livestock market reform, preventing vertical integration (keeping meat packers from owning livestock and forcing family farmers to compete in a market with extreme price pressures).

• Tom Vilsack Details

  • Birth Date

    December 12, 1950

  • Born In

    United States

  • Home Page

    Unavailable

  • Lives In

    United States

  • Organizations

    Unavailable

  • Occupation

    U.S. Secretary of Agriculture