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United States Secretary of Agriculture

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Style
  
Mr. Secretary

Reports to
  
The President

Term length
  
No fixed term

Member of
  
Cabinet

Seat
  
Washington, D.C., U.S.

United States Secretary of Agriculture

Appointer
  
The President with Senate advice and consent

The United States Secretary of Agriculture is the head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The current Acting Secretary is Mike Young, who has held the office since the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20, 2017. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other governments.

Contents

The department includes several organizations. The 297,000 mi2 (770,000 km²) of national forests and grasslands are managed by the United States Forest Service. The safety of food produced that are produced in the United States and sold here is ensured by the United States Food Safety and Inspection Service. The Food Stamp Program works with the states to provide food to low-income people. Advice for farmers and gardeners is provided by the United States Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service.

The line of succession for the Secretary of Agriculture is as follows:

  1. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture
  2. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services
  3. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Administration
  4. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services
  5. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics
  6. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety
  7. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment
  8. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development
  9. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs
  10. General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture
  11. Chief of Staff, Office of the Secretary
  12. State Executive Directors of the Farm Service Agency (in order of seniority by length of unbroken tenure) for the States of:
    1. California
    2. Iowa
    3. Kansas
  13. Regional Administrators of the Food and Nutrition Service (in order of seniority by length of unbroken tenure) for the:
    1. Mountain Plains Regional Office (Denver, Colorado)
    2. Midwest Regional Office (Chicago, Illinois)
    3. Western Regional Office (San Francisco, California)
  14. Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Agriculture
  15. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Civil Rights
  16. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Congressional Relations

In 2015, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack expressed the desire to resign to President Obama. The Washington Post reports that he said "There are days when I have literally nothing to do," he recalled thinking as he weighed his decision to quit." President Obama asked him to stay and asked him to look into the problem of opioid addiction.

List of Secretaries of Agriculture

The following is a list of Secretaries of Agriculture, since the creation of the office in 1889.

Parties

  Democratic (14)   Republican (18)

Living former Secretaries of Agriculture

As of March 2017, there are nine living former Secretaries of Agriculture, the oldest being Robert Bergland (served 1977-1981, born 1928). The most recent Secretary of Agriculture to die was Clayton Yeutter (served 1989–1991, born 1930), on March 4, 2017. The most recently serving Secretary to die was Edward Rell Madigan (1991-1993, born 1936) on December 7, 1994.

References

United States Secretary of Agriculture Wikipedia


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