Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack will exit from his role as U.S. Agriculture Secretary in three weeks with the second-longest tenure as the nation’s top ag official.
“It’s been a tremendous honor and privilege to have had nearly 12 years as the secretary of agriculture,” Vilsack said during an interview with Radio Iowa. “It is an extension of work actually that began in a small town in southeast Iowa as a small town lawyer representing farmers during the Farm Crisis. It really sort of gave me a direction to my life which has ultimately ended up with me in this office.”
Vilsack grew up on the east coast and, after graduating from law school, Vilsack moved to his wife’s hometown of Mount Pleasant. He was elected as the town’s mayor, then as a state senator before he won two terms as Iowa’s governor. Vilsack was Secretary of Agriculture during the Obama Administration and President Biden asked him to return to the role four years ago.
“As a mayor, as a state senator, as a governor and as secretary I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in, to encourage and support programs that will advance opportunities for farmers, ranchers and producers,” Vilsack said, “because I remember the pain of the Farm Crisis of the ’80s.”
Iowa farmland lost 60% of its value between 1981 and 1986 and farmers could not repay loans. In 1983 alone, there were an average of 500 farm auctions every month.
Vilsack told Radio Iowa one of the highlights of his second run as U-S agriculture secretary has been seeing an uptick in the number of farms in Iowa.
“In 1981, during the (Farm) Crisis, we had about 115,000 farms in Iowa,” Vilsack said. “Today we have 86,911 farms according to the census, but that number’s up over a census that was several years ago, so we’re headed in the right direction and I think a lot of it has to policies that we put in place to provide assistance and help, so I feel pretty good about it.”
The USDA conducts a census every five years. The last census in 2022 found the number of farm units in Iowa had increased by about 1% and the number of farmers had increased 7% from 2017. Vilsack argues the commodity-based system has rewarded size and Vilsack credits USDA programs that helped increase the number of Iowa farms operating on fewer than a thousand acres.
“I hope that I’m able to continue focusing on ways in which I can showcase the work of American agriculture, that I can showcase opportunities to expand rural economies and the farm economy to give small and midsized producers a chance,” Vilsack said. “I also have been working extraordinarily hard on nutrition and food security issues both domestically and globally.”
Vilsack, who turned 74 on December 13, is not planning to retire. “My hope is I get a chance to figure out ways in which I can continue to make a contribution,” Vilsack said. “I don’t think I’m ready for retirement and I don’t think I’d be very good at it.”
The only other person who has served longer than Vilsack as the nation’s secretary of agriculture is former Iowa Congressman James “Tama Jim” Wilson. He was ag secretary for 16 years and served three presidents.