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Farm community still waiting for U.S. Ag Secretary pick

The farm community is paying greater attention to who will be the next U.S. Secretary of Agriculture as the selection continues to take longer.

“We do pay attention,” said Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst in an interview with Brownfield Ag News Wednesday.  “We’re, I guess, maybe a little disappointed that it’s taken this long to pick a new secretary,” said Hurst, referring to the amount of time since the election.

“It will be very difficult for them to staff the Department of Agriculture and get it up to running in the time that they have available,” he said, “so hopefully that decision will be made pretty soon.”

Hurst says he has no favorites among the names mentioned lately.

“No, I don’t,” he said.  “I’ve been following it closely and obviously several people who’ve been mentioned, I think, would do a great job, but they seem to be right now former politicians, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Early on, former Indiana Farm Bureau President Don Vilwock was a possibility, but former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue is the latest to be mentioned as a likely choice.