Tom Vilsack in Reason magazine
On Budget & Economy:
Increased farm subsidies leading to overproduction
Under his leadership at USDA farm subsidies grew to record amounts. Those ballooning farm subsidies encouraged growers to overproduce, which led to needless waste and environmental damage. It also drove down prices paid to farmers. "When he exited the
USDA," The Wall Street Journal reported, "the U.S. farm economy was on the skids, with net farm income down 40% from a record high four years earlier because of successive bumper crops that swelled supplies and pushed down prices."
Source: Reason magazine on Biden Cabinet
Dec 19, 2020
On Civil Rights:
Failed to protect slaughterhouse works, help black farmers
Groups like the Independent Black Farmers coalition and the Family Farm Action Alliance have strongly criticized Vilsack's record, with the former's president, Michael Stovall, telling Politico, "When it comes to civil rights, the rights of people, he's
not for that.""Vilsack failed to enact protections for slaughterhouse workers or improve the department's treatment of black farmers, and oversaw the approval of high-speed slaughter," Leah Garc‚s, president of Mercy for Animals, said.
Source: Reason magazine on Biden Cabinet
Dec 19, 2020
On Civil Rights:
Apologized for firing black woman over doctored video
In July 2010, a misleadingly edited clip of Shirley Sherrod, the department's Georgia state director of rural development, was posted. Andrew Breitbart edited the clip to make it sound as though she refused to help [a farmer] because he was white.
Sherrod was forced to resign. Vilsack admitted he had been taken in a hit job and offered Sherrod a new position at the USDA, telling reporters, "This is a good woman, she's been put through hell and I could have and should have done a better job."
Source: Reason magazine on Biden Cabinet
Dec 19, 2020
On Civil Rights:
Foreclosed on black farmers six times more than whites
A 2019 investigation painted a devastating picture of Vilsack's civil rights record, finding that he dragged out discrimination cases until they reached the statute of limitations and no longer needed resolution, and foreclosed on Black farmers six
times as often as white farmers. "The department sent a lower share of loan dollars to black farmers than it had under President Bush, then used census data in misleading ways to burnish its record on civil rights," they report.
Source: Reason magazine on Biden Cabinet
Dec 19, 2020
On Civil Rights:
Pushed for minority voting rights on Farm Service committees
A veteran of the Vilsack USDA noted he reformed the Farm Service Agency's county committees, a key form of community consultation. Committees used to have non-voting "minority advisers" to address racial equity concerns, and Vilsack successfully pushed
to give those representatives voting rights. Another source defended Vilsack's record on civil rights, citing his department's increase in microloans to historically disadvantaged farmers.
Source: Reason magazine on Biden Cabinet
Dec 19, 2020
On Corporations:
Urban centers push anti-monopoly measures, not rural places
In a podcast in 2019, he attacked Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders for criticizing large agriculture companies, saying, "there are a substantial number of people hired and employed by those businesses here in Iowa.
So you're essentially saying to all of those folks, you might be out of a job." He argued the focus on anti-monopoly measures came from "folks in think tanks in urban centers who have had very little experience, if any, with rural places."
Source: Reason magazine on Biden Cabinet
Dec 19, 2020
On Environment:
OpEd: Rule changes harmed processing workers and animals
Under Vilsack, the USDA moved forward with major changes in meat processing regulation, which served to make the process more dangerous for workers and animals, and less costly for producers. The first reduced the number of federal
inspectors at poultry plants and delegated more authority over inspections to meat companies. The second effort proposed an increase in line speeds at poultry plants, from 140 birds per minute to 175.
Source: Reason magazine on Biden Cabinet
Dec 19, 2020
Page last updated: Dec 24, 2023