President-Elect Obama has named Tom Vilsack as his Secretary of Agriculture, a choice expected to sail through the Senate’s confirmation process. Vilsack has a long history in politics; he started out as the mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, back in 1987. From there he moved to the Iowa State Senate, where he spent six years before running for Governor. He won that election in 1998, and served two terms. He didn’t run for a third time, instead gearing up for a Presidential run which didn’t really get off the ground. He wound up endorsing Hillary Clinton, and in fact was one of the national chairmen of her campaign.

Despite his Iowa political experience, Vilsack was never a farmer – he was a lawyer for most of his working life pre-politics. He spent much of his Governorship trying to attract non-agricultural businesses to Iowa. During his term, he originated a seed-preemption bill that barred local communities from blocking planting of genetically-modified crops, and he also started a biotechnology initiative in Iowa. During his brief Presidential run, Vilsack didn’t focus on agricultural issues very much. He has expressed strong support for cutting US carbon emissions and improving domestic energy security.

Vilsack has come under some fire from the Organic Consumers Association, which opposes his nomination on the grounds that he is in favor of big farms, genetically modified crops, and biotechnology. He is also known to be a booster of ethanol and alternative sources of energy production. I’m generally a pretty pro-green kind of guy, but I have to say I don’t find these criticisms terribly compelling. Everybody likes small farms – nobody more than me! – but big farms are just a fact of life and the Agriculture Department shouldn’t beat its collective head against that brick wall. And, we’re not likely to get out of our current situation with energy and agriculture policy using the tools of the last century. Genetically-modified crops and biotechnology are the wave of the future; surely, we need responsible regulation and some reasonable constraints on what the ag companies get up to, but equally surely, we’re not going back to the days of 20-acre farm plots planting cultivars unchanged from the days of our great-great-great-grandfathers.

On balance I think Vilsack is a pretty good choice. He’s knowledgeable about agriculture, seems to be a pretty good manager, and in a long political career hasn’t shown himself to have crazy ideas or a dangerous mindset in any direction. Both political extremes seem to dislike him somewhat, which to my mind is a good sign. I think he’ll be a good Secretary of Agriculture and will make reasonable policies that will strengthen our farm sector in the years to come.