Unless you’re listening to this episode well after early January 2025, Tom Vilsack is still Secretary of Agriculture, the chief of the United States Department of Agriculture — which is the second biggest federal organization in the country (after the Department of Defense), and from the perspective of food, the most important.
When Vilsack was Secretary of Agriculture during the Obama Administration, he was, let’s say, not well loved by the progressive food community, of which I consider myself a part. In what we’re calling Vilsack 2 — his term with President Biden over the last four years — Vilsack has shown a tremendous willingness to change, to be thoughtful, to be progressive, to be responsive. Even in the first year of the Administration, it was clear that Vilsack was willing and eager to move in different directions.
No one can be the perfect Secretary of Agriculture, but Tom Vilsack has done a credible job, and believe me, in three months, we’re going to miss him. So I thought it’d be good to see what Vilsack thought about this term and what he thinks the future could look like.
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