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KATHLEEN MERRIGAN NAMED DEPUTY SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE.
The inbox tells me that Kathleen Merrigan will be heading to the Department of Agriculture to serve as Tom Vilsack's Deputy Secretary. I don't know a lot about Merrigan save that she's a professor at Tufts whose CV says all the right things. Research interests are "sustainable development, negotiation theory, policy implementation, interest group politics." She'll get plenty of experience with that last one in her new job.
Merrigan was getting buzz back in November, when Samuel Fromartz of Chews Wise (dreaming small, they put Merrigan up for undersecretary for marketing and regulatory affairs. She's been put up for deputy secretary of the agency.) began pushing her with a post detailing Merrigan's government background.
I first heard about Merrigan while working on Organic Inc., looking into the origins of the Organic Food and Production Act of 1990 and sustainable agriculture policy. She was mentioned repeatedly by people I talked to, because as a senate staffer for Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Merrigan had drafted the organic law. She then went on to work at the USDA's agricultural marketing service (AMS), which runs the organic program. Even before then, she was involved in sustainable agriculture policy and has been ever since -- in organics, conservation, food access, and small farm issues. While Pollan helped put these issues onto the national agenda, people like Merrigan have long been doing the wonky policy work.
Outside government, she has worked for the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture, served on a the Pew commission on biotechnology and has been active in the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. She now heads the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at Tufts School of Nutrition and Policy. As marketing and regulatory undersecretary, she would oversee AMS, GIPSA (Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration), and APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) - touching virtually every aspect of agriculture.
In short, this is a real shot for a major position at the USDA by someone who has pursued the change mantra in agriculture for nearly two decades.
Much more information on Merrigan in the comments. Particularly this one. All in all, Merrigan looks like a solid choice. I was skeptical of Vilsack's appointment, but he's doing a damn good job proving me wrong.
COMMENTS (25)
Oddly, the one thing that makes me nervous is the observation at the end of Keating's comment: that she's still in the process of completing her dissertation at MIT. She sounds wonderful; I'm only concerned that she's forgoing the chance to finish her dissertation in a timely manner or putting her PhD at risk... which is something of a problem (still) for women and doctorates. I'm sure I'm just having the visceral reaction of a kid whose Mom gave up her PhD work when life intervened; still, I hope someone is making sure that completing her PhD remains part of her thinking... she sounds like she really has something to contribute to knowledge in the field.
Posted by: weboy | February 23, 2009 5:57 PM
I wouldn't worry about her dissertation - highly driven people finish up, regardless, and she seems to be both focused and driven. Still, can you imagine being on the dissertation committee of the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture?
I'm not fond of the "progressive" rubric, since increasingly it seems to cover people who are at core DLC Democrats but who support gay marriage and have Twitter feeds, but a short time into the Obama administration and it's looking like the only appointee who's been taking genuinely progressive actions is Vilsack, from ag policy to broader rural policy. I was so-so on the appointment (not against it but not enthusiastically supportive of it) but have been really pleased so far. And unlike Ezra, I actually follow ag news and policy and give a crap about what happens to rural America.
I like what I know of Merrigan but wonder a bit if she was nominated to keep the urban white yuppie foodies happy.
Posted by: Melinda | February 23, 2009 6:08 PM
weboy: she finished her dissertation in 2000. sorry if that deprives you of an opportunity to assert your feminist credentials.
Posted by: raft | February 23, 2009 6:49 PM
You can find her completed thesis here:
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/8835
Posted by: SarahB | February 24, 2009 12:20 AM
All of that is awesome to read...especially when you try to imagine the same post being filled in the Bush (or even McCain) Adminstration...
Would that candidate be an executive from Cargill, Ortho or Monsanto?...
Posted by: Mr Furious | February 24, 2009 1:10 AM
The dissertation comment was at the end of an article from 2000. (which means she's 48 or 49, instead of 40, which makes me feel better about what little I've accomplished in my life...)
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