Vilsack: USDA to ‘institutionalize’ Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food
April 19, 2013 | 06:05 PM
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said last week that USDA will make the “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative a permanent part of activities through the department.
The initiative was championed by Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, who has announced that she will leave USDA on May 3. Advocates for organic and local agriculture both inside and outside USDA have expressed concerns about whether the program would continue without her leadership.
“As significant as the deputy’s role was, [Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food] is now at a place where it is part of the institutional thinking of USDA and is a critical component of what we do at USDA,” Vilsack said in the question-and-answer session after a speech to the North American Agricultural Journalists on April 8.
“My goal is not only to maintain it but continue to improve it, modify it, to expand it,” he said.
“This is not something driven by a single individual,” he said. “It is an entry way for beginning farmers, a way to create communities.”
“There are multiple reasons why this is a good thing to do. Major farm groups are recognizing this is important.”
Vilsack’s use of the word “institutional” was particularly significant because Merrigan told Jerry Hagstrom in an interview that by leaving in the fifth year of the administration, there would still be time for the Obama administration “to institutionalize” Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food throughout the agency.
