Who Is Tom Vilsack?

Do you eat food? If you answered yes, you are impacted by the United States Department of Agriculture, and the person who is currently in charge of it: former Governor of Iowa Tom Vilsack. And it’s not just food: from environmental justice, to economic justice, to racial justice, to climate justice, agriculture sits at the nexus of many of the critical issues of our time. Basically, power isn’t always where you think it is, and the Secretary of Agriculture is probably the most powerful cabinet official that you’ve maybe never heard of. On this episode of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow heads to Iowa, for a look at an agency with changemaking potential that is particularly susceptible to business as usual, and for a glimpse at who’s in charge in the Biden Administration.  Chris Clayton, Ag Policy Editor at The Progressive Farmer. Clayton is the author of “The Elephant in the Cornfield: The Politics of Agriculture and Climate Change” Navina Khanna, Executive Director of the Health, Environment, Agriculture and Labor (HEAL) Food Alliance, which is based in Oakland, California Adam Mason, State Policy Director at Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Kathie Obradovich, Editor of the Iowa Capital Dispatch  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices