As appointment of agriculture secretary remains up in the air, some have policy advice for Obama

As President-elect Barack Obama weighs his options for the position of agriculture secretary, some rural interests are asking him to reflect on his campaign promise to reform farm and rural policies. Many see the appointment as either a way forward or as a means of preserving the status quo.

"He proposed refocusing federal policy on creating opportunity for family farms by capping payments to mega farms and enforcing rules against unfair pricing practices by meat packers," Chuck Hassebrook, executive director of the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs, writes in the Des Moines Register. "To revitalize rural communities, he proposed investing in small business, microenterprise development and value-added agriculture, including local foods and sustainable agriculture."

Hassebrook suggests that farm and rural policy have come to exemplify the broken politics of Washington. He adds, "The federal government spends billions subsidizing mega farms to drive smaller farms off the land and often penalizes the best environmental stewards with lower payments." It is the support of these smaller farms that he sees as the best farm policy, and he says current policy largely ignores many rural people. "In 2005 the Department of Agriculture spent nearly twice as much to subsidize the 260 biggest farms across 13 leading farm states than on rural development initiatives to create economic opportunity for the 3 million people living in those states' 260 most struggling rural counties," he writes. (Read more)

Since the election several names have been mentioned as possible candidates for the agriculture secretary position. Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack had been the odds-on favorite, but told Philip Brasher of the Register that he does not expect to get the post. (Read more)

Reps. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and Stephanie Sandlin, D-S.D., are two other names Obama is rumored to be considering.(Read more)