For decades of presidential cabinet appointments, the Secretary of Agriculture has often been one of the last, almost as an afterthought.  I would say that August 2020 is not too soon to start thinking about who our next USDA Secretary will or should be—and not too soon to get some names out to the public, the media, and to the Biden-Harris team.

Last week, a great article was posted on the oldest and largest U.S. food & farm listserv, COMFOOD. “Farmers Reject Biden’s Pro-Corporate Rural Advisers” contains many of the reasons why 35 years ago a rural-suburban-urban coalition was formed to represent food and farm, farmers and consumers, not only corporate money.

I took this article as a wake-up call to start thinking about who does the food & farm movement want to advise Biden & Harris, both before and after the election?