Vilsack.

In his eleventy-teenth press conference (probably more than the current President has done since 2006), Barack Obama will announce today that Ken Salazar will be the Secretary of the Interior, and Tom Vilsack will be the Secretary of Agriculture. I went over Salazar yesterday. Vilsack is probably a better pick than a couple of the others floated for this job, but as a former Iowa governor it's unlikely he'll do anything but the status quo on corn policy, which is easily the worst part of our food policy (If I wasn't clear enough, I'm talking about ethanol and biofuels, which expend more energy than they produce). I agree with Mick Kristof that the name ought to be changed to the Department of Food. We are not nearly the agricultural society that we were when the Department was launched, and a focus on food would be much more relevant to, er, the eaters. Our food policy, where we pay subsidies to farmers not to grow and subsidize the corn growers beyond all reason, is very out of whack. Industrial factory farms and their lobbyists set the policy. We could limit subsidies to the richest farmers and create a new food culture based on eating locally and supporting organic farming. A good manifesto for a saner food policy is here.

I don't think Vilsack is going to promote this drastic a change. I'm sure he's competent, and hopefully open to new ideas, but I don't see a revolution on the horizon. That said, his name is fun to say!