To help move the process along, nearly 90 notable figures in the world of sustainable agriculture and food sent a letter to the Obama transition team earlier this week offering their six top picks for what they called “the sustainable choice for the next U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.”
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For those playing along at home, here’s their list of the six top picks for Secretary of Agriculture…
Mark Ritchie, Minnesota Secretary of State, former policy analyst in Minnesota’s Department of Agriculture under Governor Rudy Perpich, co-founder of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
Secretary Ritchie is a little preoccupied now, but he is an expert in agriculture policy and he’d be Minnesota’s second third US Secretary of Agriculture after Orville Freeman (who is best known for his leadership on food stamps) and Bob Bergland.
Sadly, my choice is one of the signers of the letter, Michael Pollan.
Edit: Thanks to reader, Freedoms Eagle for correcting me on Minnesota’s USDA Secretaries.
actually we had another Minnesotan who was Sec of Agriculture: Bob Bergland under Jimmy Carter. so any Minnesotan appointed would then be the third.
I cannot tell you how much I respect the work of Mark Ritchie. During all this long painful recount process, I have often wondered what the outcome would be. I have had quite a few moments of sadness about the Rochester state convention and mistakes made there. But I have never doubted that Mark Ritchie would conduct a completely honest process and that democracy would be well served. I would hate to have him leave his current role, but I have no doubt that he would make the best Secretary of Agriculture that we have seen in at least decades.
I like Michael Pollan for Ag too but he has already said he isn’t interested. Don’t know enough about Mark Ritchie to comment but I’ve heard that names mentioned on Obama’s short list are involved with lobbying for corporate farming or are actual owners of large corporate farming operations except Sibelius, who doesn’t have any farming experience. I hope Obama heeds the advice of the people who sent him the letter.
My only critical point of this site is that the writers do not have long roots in Minnesota.
Who can forget Congressman Berglund but, remember Freeman?
Charley
Tell more about mistakes made at the convention. I’ve never gone and am curious about a process that results in the endorsement of a candidate with such low favorability ratings. While Al is very knowledgable on issues and would/will support progressive policies in senate, he sure didn’t connect well with voters.
Al, was endorsed because he spent a year campaigning before the the caucuses. At the caucuses he had his people run for delegate spots. He then spent hours on the phone talking to almost all of the 1200 delegates and, going to every bean feed and parade across the state. He got the endorsement because he worked for it.
Now, his advantages were his ability to raise a large amount of money to pay for a top notch team, leave his job, and start off with relatively high name recognition.
‘st
Every two years starting at the caucuses, the opportunity to run your supporters for delegate positions across the state. Franken took it one step further and had his people run for Rules and Nominations committees too. Franken supporters dominated the DFL state convention last June.
I have to agree with DJZ. Although I did not attend the State Convention, I was part of my local district convention and congressional convention. I also served on the central committee at the congressional district level. I saw that Al was out helping DFLers campaign for office for the 2006 election. He was all over the state helping people by making personal appearances.
In the run up to the 2008 election, Team Franken was well organized far in advance of the caucuses. His team was out in force and, yeah, made sure their people showed up early for the caucuses, got involved at the local level, and did the phone calling, door knocking, and house parties that are necessary for a successful campaign. There were other excellent candidates for Senate, including Mike Ciresi and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. I have a lot of admiration for Ciresi, but he was almost invisible. I personally preferred Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer overall, but Team Franken was so well organized and energetic that I felt, despite knowing he would draw a lot of mud from the GOP, that Al would also generate a lot of enthusiasm, especially from the younger voters. I was impressed with his campaign, I still am.
I don’t know what would have happened had someone like Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer won endorsement instead of Franken. I think he might have had trouble fundraising to compete against the GOP political machine. The political ads may have been less ruthless, but the GOP would have found something to smear JNP with (probably calling him a scary leftist professor from some commie university who’s unfit for public office). Guess we’ll never know.
Getting back to the main topic of this article, I also have to agree with Charley. I have a LOT of admiration for Mark Ritchie. I had the opportunity to talk with him at an appearance at a house party for a local candidate. I volunteered for Election Protection in 2004 and served as a DFL election observer (also referred to as ‘challenger’) in 2006. I told him how relieved I was that he was elected as our new Secretary of State as election integrity is a BIG concern of mine. He spent time with me talking about election issues and my experience as an election observer in 2006.
What I observed is that he truly cares about doing the best job possible for the people of Minnesota. If he were tapped for a job at the national level, that would be a win for the nation at large but a huge loss for Minnesota. I certainly don’t want Mary Kiffmeyer (or someone like her) to take over as Secretary of State and dismantle the excellent election law that was shepherded in by former MN SoS Joan Growe.
I think the person who is most missed from that list is Jim Hightower. Twice elected as Texas Secretary of Agriculture, he has been an advocate of sustainable agriculture probably as long as anyone.
What’s up with these weekend breaks?
You guys got 17 authors over there! Brodkorb has himself and he’s got a wife and set of twins at home!
Let’s step it up, we need your updates even on the weekends. Maybe a weekend crew could help.
Yes, devote yourselves entirely to your unpaid job at this blog and ignore that pesky wife and family.
DJZ —
re: [i]”My only critical point of this site is that the writers do not have long roots in Minnesota.
Who can forget Congressman Berglund but, remember Freeman?”[/i]
In 2009 I will celebrate 7 years of continuous living in Minnesota. This will equal the longest time that I have ever lived in one place. My apologies for my lack of roots in the state — but it should be noted that Matt and Zack are both Minnesota natives, although they’re both younger than I am.
Now, how could someone forget Congressman Berglund, but remember Freeman? I think this is a relatively simple answer. As I pointed out previously I’m the oldest regular contributor to MNPublius — at the ripened and wizened age of 26. I was born in 1982 almost a year and a half after Secretary Bergland stepped down as Secretary of Agriculture. I can’t say that I’m well versed in all of the Secretaries of Agriculture, in fact I can now name 4 secretaries of Agriculture (Henry Wallace, Orville Freeman, Mike Espy and now, Bob Berglund). What makes Orville Freeman exceptional? Memorable? First of all — as a student and admirer of Hubert Humphrey, Orville Freeman is key to Humphrey’s rise to politics, he was considered Humphrey’s enforcer, he was an assistant to Humphrey when he was Mayor of Minneapolis, he was later Governor of Minnesota and it was in that role that Freeman had his biggest impact on the country. Freeman was picked by JFK to nominate him at the 1960 Democratic convention and later, just before the election Freeman made a famous televised speech where he defended JFK against a series of anonymous attacks against his Catholicism. JFK won Minnesota, but ironically Freeman lost his election for Governor. JFK paid back Freeman by giving him the post of Secretary of Agriculture — it’s not to diminish the sacrifice and service of Secretary Bergland, but Freeman oversaw both the food stamps program and a national food crisis and he served for eight years as well.
Thats why I know who Orville Freeman was, but I didn’t know about Secretary Bergland. My apologies and I changed the post to reflect that.
And finally, as a member of the DFL History Committee — I was obviously remiss in not knowing that a DFL’er served as Secretary of Agriculture but it has lead to one positive, Secretary Bergland is not included in the DFL’s Hall of Distinguished Service, we just submitted our list of inductees for this year but I will be working to include him next year.
Nice post. Thank you for the info. Keep it up.
Let me help you out Brother Sean.
The Chair of the Seventh CD, is his grand-daughter.
She’s been active for a couple of decades. As a matter of fact, a lot of the Seventh CD folks will, and can be helpful. I’d start with LBO, and then some of the pols who’ve been around for a while. The whole Peterson (state house clan, not US Congress) family will have some insight. It could be a worthwhile gesture to our friends in the West and NW part of the state that are so rarely recognized.
Take it easy on the defense. It wasn’t that serious.
Bob Bergland has opened up his home many times this past cycle for folks needing a place to stay when doorknocking in NW Minnesota. He is a legend in NW Minnesota and Roseau. He is getting up there in age now though.
Though continuing to be very active in the 7th CD DFL, Lori Berglund Olson is no longer chair. Paul Wright has been chair for several years, so it’s understandable how the writers here could have missed that one.