Department of Agriculture - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Department of Agriculture Index / Organizations Transcripts Byron Auguste ...big. But there were lots of others— Department of Agriculture , Department of Transportation, etc... Tom Frieden ...I fought hard for it, but we lost. The Agriculture Department , which tends to be pretty friendly t... Zeke Emanuel ...of food and labeling, the plate, the Department of Agriculture , the Department of Education. So yes... Nicole Lurie ...to use the food stamp program, and the Department of Agriculture , to stand up farmers' markets, an... Tom Vilsack ...time. All the time. All the time. The Department of Agriculture is the—I wasn't secretary of any othe... ...was money to invest, you ended up—the Department of Agriculture was always at the table making ... ...this, and we could use the power of the USDA [United States Department o... ...the power of the USDA [United States Department of Agriculture ] to provide money for this and that... ...the Obama administration did with its Department of Agriculture , is we created that local and regiona... ...economic development investments at the Department of Agriculture . You talked, including the testimon... ...read that when you first arrived at the Department of Agriculture , you'd asked how many employees ther... ...and jurisdictions of the United States Department of Agriculture when you first started the job? ... ...probably five thousand employees at USDA at a variety of locations. I had on... ...And that's the other thing about the Department of Agriculture . Unlike a lot of other departments, i... ...from for this beautiful school?” Well, USDA . I'll never forget being on Ai... ...have over a million housing loans at USDA .” I said, “If we were a bank, we'... ...know the Forest Service was part of the Department of Agriculture until I got this job. I thought it wa... ...housing, and he got educated about the Department of Agriculture being a large bank. And that gets bac... ...part because of the capacity of the Department of Agriculture . Another story. We're in a cabine... ...the mental health clinics that the Department of Agriculture was putting into a community. An... ...this thing. But I was there because the USDA was financing it, and the poor USD... ...the USDA was financing it, and the poor USDA person, who actually did all the work... ...that at every ribbon cutting that the USDA had a speaking spot. That it explaine... ...for a project would be coming from the Department of Agriculture or the Department of Commerce or th... ...understanding of the mission of USDA . And, frankly, I don't think anybod... ...Service was under the purview of the Department of Agriculture . If I had been asked on a quiz, ... ...fully understand the scope of the Department of Agriculture either. I remember being on a... ...loans?” Well, the reality is, today the USDA 's loan portfolio would make it, ... ...of loans that have been made by the Department of Agriculture . Nobody knows that. I suspect tha... ...on the street, “What role does the Department of Agriculture play in food safety?” they would say... ...poultry, and processed eggs, it's us at USDA . We used to say, If it's a chees... ...different philosophies of food safety. USDA 's philosophy was essentially, Let'... ...point of view to the public what USDA does and the scope of its activities? ... ...Food Safety and Inspection Service at USDA . Can you point to the most significan... ...and you've got a United States Department of Agriculture responsible for the [National] Schoo... ...peanut butter, and they don't tell the USDA . They basically keep it under wrap... ...within one of either at FDA or at USDA . But when you do that it bucks u... ...philosophy became more in line with the USDA 's philosophy of, “It's not abou... ...another area of regulation, or where USDA had to think abou... ...following month, in January of 2011, USDA decided not to regulat... ...ranchers, and food processors. In 2010, USDA proposed new rules regarding farmers... ...that case one day to our researchers at USDA , who were frustrated by the fact the... ...food insecurity. When your tenure at USDA began, forty-nine million American... ... I want to turn to diversity, and the Department of Agriculture , and civil rights issues in th... ...and civil rights issues in the Department of Agriculture . I wanted to start by asking you abou... ...a cultural transformation effort within USDA to begin talking about diversit... ...time had come for departments like the USDA to discriminate against Whites in favo... ...represented various missionaries of the USDA , that they would work collaborativel... ...by the end of the Obama administration, USDA 's executive leadership group was amon... ...This survey was based on George Bush's USDA . So I said, “We're working on it.... ...seventh. And Forbes magazine ranked the USDA as one of the top three hundred place... ...told that in the most recent survey, USDA 's back down at the bottom, which i... ...work that—the struggle to get the Department of Agriculture recognized in the halls of Congress... ...that there was so much interest in the USDA job this time around, I think, is ... ...came into the position of secretary at USDA . When and how did it become an aim o... ...here's a hundred million dollars. USDA , go take care of the rest of thes... ...White House. The problem is that the USDA couldn't simply write a check for ... ...pandemic, in the sense, that the USDA 's capacity to respond to the drough... ...Why was that important, in terms of USDA 's ability to manage wildfires? ... ...about doing it. After seven years at USDA , I had the place figured out, and ... Show more... Kathleen Merrigan ...operating officer of the United States Department of Agriculture [USDA] during the Obama administration... ...States Department of Agriculture [ USDA ] during the Obama administration. I... ...I was not a typical deputy secretary at USDA . First of all, I was female. But ... ...do, given the hostility, historically, USDA had expressed toward organi... ...Garth Youngberg, had been fired from USDA for authoring a report on organi... ...little story that gives you a sense of USDA 's hostility toward the industr... ...Agricultural Marketing Service [AMS] at USDA during the Clinton administration. An... ...the other impetuses of the legislation. USDA would not allow meat and poultry t... ...some key players who wanted that label. USDA didn't allow for any labeling of mea... ...so nine years after the law passed. And USDA was very, very slow to implement tha... ...operating officer at the United States Department of Agriculture . You mentioned a few minutes ago ho... ...from when I announced I was leaving USDA . And I always point that out t... ...to ask about developing an agenda at USDA during your initial time in th... ...the administration. In August of 2009, USDA launched Know Your Farmer, Know You... ...there ways in which your experience at USDA during the Clinton administratio... ...agenda or framework? When I came into USDA , I understood that my primary role wa... ...appointees, and they come and go. USDA is 110,000 employees, and you can'... ...one agency. That I thought every one of USDA 's seventeen agencies, and probabl... ...in the Farm Service Agency for getting USDA money to help with putting together ... ...and it was also very unusual for USDA . And that was to ensure that th... ...I go somewhere, I want to go to a local USDA office.” I went to offices where peopl... ...things. I just wanted to be accessible. USDA is what we call a field-based agency... ...agency, meaning that most of USDA folk are outside of metro DC, ninet... ...I realized that because of the size of USDA , what's going on in one agency, the... ...Massachusetts, and I realized that two USDA agencies were funding that same entit... ...me that we needed more transparency for USDA employees to do good jobs, to d... ...became a public education tool. All of USDA investments in local and regiona... ...doing local and regional. And a lot of USDA programs—as I mentioned, it's ... ...garden which had been created next to USDA headquarters. I wanted to ask abou... ...taking that little plot of land on USDA 's campus and putting a garden there... ...front of the Capitol. That was in part USDA 's agricultural research station bac... ...back a little tiny bit of production on USDA 's land. It was a place for people t... ...that I launched. So part of that USDA garden was really trying to involve th... ...It was about the historical use of USDA land. And, best of all, when we had th... ...said that approaches to growing at USDA facilities were “not going to b... ...would instead come from region-specific USDA offices.” And I wanted to ask you wh... ...facilities and sort of the spread of USDA centers across the states that you ha... ...includes nuts. But that was important. USDA is a strange beast; because abou... ...because about seventy percent of what USDA does is determine the context of a far... ...top of 2009, and I didn't actually join USDA until, I think it was the first week i... ...taking photographs and sending it to USDA 's communication folk, because I wante... ...to do it. But I was the person from USDA who got on camera and said pink slim... ...wanted to ask about that, in fact. One USDA publication about the American Recover... ...between the Commerce Department and USDA . I wasn't so involved with this, bu... ...some bureaucratic finagling between USDA and Commerce; like, Who's the boss? An... ...the start of the Obama administration, USDA reported that over the previous decade... ...and farmers markets. Do those involve USDA in any way, or are they structure... ...talking about eventually made it into USDA programs. So today we do have some o... ...that we were already working on at USDA . But I think what was very importan... ...The Economic Research Service of USDA does an annual report—I think it'... ...Because my career has always been very USDA focused, to some extent FDA [Food an... ...to ask you about the way in which USDA coordinated, in this case not with th... ...How did Sam Kass help to bridge USDA and the First Lady's Office? Sam wa... ...in farm-to-school when I came to USDA , and I used a not very well know... ...wasn't a farm-to-school program at USDA , or a person. We embedded her in th... ...to see themselves on the map that USDA created of all of those people'... ...to help with federal procurement, USDA procurement of food so that we coul... ...What hadn't worked about the way USDA had encouraged healthy eating befor... ...responsibility for them rotates between USDA and HHS [Department of Health and Huma... ...Health and Human Services] . In 2010, USDA was responsible. We had to hav... ...kind of meat or poultry, it has to be a USDA -inspected facility that does th... ...going to buy from a farmer to be from a USDA -inspected facility. The problem is... ...mobile slaughter units. Those could be USDA inspected, and they could go from on... ...something I was deeply engaged in at USDA . I had been hired on the Senat... ...That involved all the key people at USDA , career, in biotech. This was durin... ...from various farm bills and efforts at USDA to help with beginning farmers. M... ...important issue. In December of 2009, USDA released 14 million dollars fo... ...program. At the time, you'd said that USDA was committed to the idea “for al... ...White Meat,” all of these programs that USDA runs, and AMS in particular runs. And ... ...the Biden-Harris administration is that USDA leadership, the politica... ...experience that positions them to open USDA doors wider in ways that haven'... ...Conservation Service, NRCS, programs at USDA , they should have certainty that the... ...more toward the end of my time though— USDA changed the Crop Hardiness Zone Ma... ...upwards. To me, that coming out of USDA was a real acknowledgment that th... ...was the right time to step down from USDA . I think I left May second. ... ...regional agriculture, was about opening USDA 's doors wider and inviting ne... ...and inviting new constituencies into USDA . A lot of times, people talk abou... ...up. I was trying to do a refresh for USDA , saying, “We're all about all of you... Show more... Robert Post ...of the Senior Executive Service at USDA [United States Department o... ...Service at USDA [United States Department of Agriculture ], served three appointments a... ...was associative executive director of USDA 's Center for Nutrition Policy an... ...our purposes, he directed the work of USDA 's nutrition and communications an... ...Dr. Post was director of USDA 's Food and Nutrition Labeling polic... ...perspective, working jointly between USDA and FDA [Food and Drug Administration]... ...helped me when I was invited to join USDA 's Center for Nutrition Policy an... ...Policy and Promotion as an agency in USDA associated with the Food and Nutritio... ...regulatory agencies. So that's at USDA and in HHS [Department of Health an... ...more than a hundred-year history now of USDA providing dietary guidance. In th... ...In the hundred-year anniversary of USDA , I got to provide lectures. And tha... ...of the Dietary Guidelines at FDA and at USDA 's Food Safety and Inspection Servic... ...course, if you look at the history at USDA of the evolution of advice, it reall... ...needed to be very much connected. USDA , the Center for Nutrition Policy an... ...soundness of the approaches that the USDA —what was the Nutrition Evidenc... ...definitely an effort between CDC and USDA 's FSIS and the Food and Dru... ...at every agency. I was part of the USDA group. And every agency then would b... Show more... Hannah August ...MyPlate, that's within the purview of USDA [US Department of Agriculture], o... ...that's within the purview of USDA [US Department of Agriculture ], or passing legislation that woul... Sam Kass ...around, And. like, Let's go. Let's go, USDA [US Department of Agriculture] . Let'... ...And. like, Let's go. Let's go, USDA [US Department of Agriculture ] . Let's go, HHS [Department of Healt... ...interests that come barreling into the USDA . [Laughs] But he was a great champio... ...the deputy secretary, the number two at USDA , really drove a lot of the Know You... ...I mean, some agencies like HHS and USDA definitely have a lot of communication... ...I think, probably, the people at USDA and HHS had met, but besides that. An... ...interesting. I don't want to throw my USDA colleagues under the bus here, and ... ...got truly excited, including those at USDA . And I think everybody felt ultimatel... ...because it had been, probably, the USDA 's most recognizable image, peopl... ...But Deb did a good job managing it, and USDA did a good job managing it, all thing... Show more... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa go to the Financial Crisis and the Economy Financial Crisis and the Economy go to the Women and Girls Women and Girls go to the Wartime Presidency Wartime Presidency go to the Atlantic Relations Atlantic Relations