Industry groups mostly positive to Perdue nomination
WASHINGTON – Agriculture industry associations reacted mostly favorably to the nomination of former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue for agriculture secretary but critics suggested Donald Trump’s last cabinet selection indicated rural America is low on his list of priorities.
The National Cotton Council noted he was from the second-largest cotton-producing state. The American Soybean Association said it looked forward to working with him to “expand our markets overseas.” And the National Chicken Council said he was “a welcomed choice from the ‘Broiler Belt.’” And National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President Tracy Brunner said Perdue has “a unique and expert understanding of both the business and the scientific sides of agriculture” adding he will “stand up for rural America.”
Perdue, who served as Georgia’s Republican governor from 2003 to 2011 and before that in the state senate and has a doctorate in veterinary medicine from the University of Georgia, was one of several people Trump and his team considered for the job. He visited Trump Tower for his interview 50 days ago Thursday, and will have little time to prepare for his confirmation hearing.
Perdue, 70, would replace former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who resigned his position Friday before his successor had been named.
Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley groused on Twitter before the announcement that the wait had become “frustr8ing,” adding the country needed leader with “dirt under finger nails 4 farmers.”
Trump or his team had interviewed several others, including Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, Texas A & M University President Elsa Murano and former California lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado.
The selection just one day before Trump is sworn in also drew criticism from those noting the new administration will have no Hispanic members for the first time since Ronald Reagan’s second term.
Trump: Sonny Perdue will be 'great' Agriculture secretary
If confirmed, Perdue will oversee a department with a $150 billion budget and 90,000 employees dealing with farm commodity exports, hunger and nutrition programs and forestry as well as the 2018 Farm Bill setting farm and food policy in a newly politically ascendant rural America.
The complexity of the issues he faces was hammered home by Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, in welcoming “an outstanding nominee.”
“He understands the challenges facing rural America because that’s where he was born and raised,” Duvall said. “He is a businessman who recognizes the impact immigration reform, trade agreements and regulation have on a farmer’s bottom line and ability to stay in business from one season to the next.”
Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, an anti-poverty advocacy group, said that if confirmed “we hope Governor Perdue will work to create a fair farm safety net that addresses inequality in rural America and bolsters economic opportunities for millions of smallholder farmers globally.”
At a reception before the California State Society’s every-four-year’s inaugural luncheon Thursday, House majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, whose California Central Valley district is rich in agriculture, applauded the choice.
“I’ve known Sonny Perdue for quite some time,” he said. “He was a very effective governor…I’d like to get him out to California as soon as possible and walk him through the valley.”
Newly named to the House Agriculture Committee, freshman Congressman Jimmy Panetta of California said he understood Trump was considering Maldonado. His main concern was “what his stand is going to be on immigration…and how important it is to specialty crops on the Central Coast…It would be great to have him visit and see what the salad bowl of the world offers.”
U.S. Rep. and rice farmer Doug LaMalfa, whose northern California district also produces almonds, prunes and other fruits and nuts, said he wouldn’t read anything into Perdue being named as the last cabinet pick.
“Somebody has to be first and somebody has to be 21st,” he said. ”I know they were trying to vet a lot of candidates and there’s some pressure from certain quarters on the diversity angle” adding he was “glad they chose someone based on merit.”
But critics said it showed Trump’s ignorance and unfamiliarity with the rural America that embraced him during the campaign.
“I can see why voters he courted so effectively in rural America wonder why President-elect Trump took so long to pick a secretary of agriculture, but put yourself in his custom-made shoes,” said Kenneth A. Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a Washington think tank that tracks USDA subsidy payments to agribusiness.
From his penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue, his “closest reference point is a place called Sheep Meadow, a very short limousine ride to the southern reaches of Central Park.”
“The question isn’t if Mr. Trump has forgotten rural people and their needs,” he added. “The question is why anyone in rural America ever thought he had the slightest clue about them or their daily lives.”
The Environmental Working Group noted Perdue, who operates grain elevators in Georgia and South Carolina, received $278,679 in USDA subsidies through 2004, but none since.