Washington, D.C. - Iowa waited nearly 60 years to have a U.S. secretary of agriculture. Now, an Iowan not only has the top job at the Agriculture Department, but Iowans also fill the key jobs that have a hand in everything from deciding who gets school lunches to writing rules for organic food.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the first Iowan to hold the job since Henry A. Wallace left the post in 1940, has filled five key positions with people who are Iowa natives or worked for him when he was governor. Advertisement

They include John Norris, who was chief of staff to Vilsack as governor. He took the same job at the USDA, temporarily as it turns out, to help Vilsack get established at the department.

Vilsack tapped his former human services director in Iowa, Kevin Concannon, to oversee food and nutrition programs, which account for two-thirds of the department's budget. That will play a key role in determining whether President Barack Obama fulfills his campaign pledge to end childhood hunger by 2015.

Two other appointees, John Ferrell and Doug O'Brien, grew up on Iowa farms and have special expertise in regulating agricultural markets. O'Brien is chief of staff to the deputy secretary, Kathleen Merrigan. Ferrell is a deputy undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs.

Michael Michener, a former development specialist at the State Department who was a foreign policy adviser to Vilsack during his brief presidential campaign, is running the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service. That makes him responsible for two of Vilsack's policy priorities: promoting agricultural biotechnology overseas and helping stabilize Afghanistan by boosting agricultural development there. Michener managed the State Department's programs promoting democracy and human rights in Iraq from 2005 to 2007.

It's not unusual for a Cabinet secretary to tap old allies or assistants for key positions.

"It's important to get the team in there that you need in order to accomplish the mission of the department," said Kevin Herglotz, who was communications director for former Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman.

Like Vilsack, Veneman took the reins at the beginning of a new administration, President George W. Bush's, when all of the top positions in the department are vacant. Veneman brought in several allies from her previous job as California's agriculture secretary. They included Herglotz and A.J. Yates, who ran the USDA agency that regulates fruit and vegetable marketing.

Veneman also filled several positions with agribusiness lobbyists, something Vilsack couldn't do because of Obama's ban on hiring lobbyists. That restriction limited Vilsack's ability to bring in Washington insiders, said Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Vilsack's appointments have gone down well with at least one key Republican in Congress, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, who has long been pushing with mixed success for tougher regulation of livestock markets. Ferrell and O'Brien should "make a big difference, and all to my delight," Grassley said.

Here's a look at the USDA's Iowa gang...

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