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Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa and head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 12 years, said Thursday that Iowa leaders need to look toward “and” conversations rather than “or” discussions to solve some of the state’s biggest issues.
Vilsack said during a recording of “
Iowa Press
” that a move to support small and midsized farms would help with water quality issues, concerns around eminent domain and the rural economy. He also spoke about recent cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, USDA staffing and other changes from the Trump administration.
Back in Iowa after the change in administration, Vilsack now is CEO of the World Food Prize in Des Moines, a role he said is a “continuation” of the work he did as secretary of agriculture.
The World Food Prize will host the Iowa Hunger Summit on July 16, with a focus on the root causes of food insecurity and raising awareness on the challenges of combating hunger.
“A challenge that is going to get a little bit more difficult because the federal government has made decisions to sort of take a step back in terms of the assistance that has traditionally been provided,” Vilsack said during the show, recorded at Iowa PBS studios in Johnston.
Vilsack said cuts to SNAP in the “big beautiful bill,” which was
signed
into law July 4, are going to “put the onus on the rest of us to step up our game.”
The food assistance program helps about 1 in 12 Iowans, according to a
report
from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The federal bill
tightens eligibility requirements
and requires states to shoulder more of the program costs.
Vilsack said these changes will have an impact beyond the people who will be without food assistance, as 20 cents of every SNAP dollar spent at the grocery store goes back to farmers.
“So when you cut SNAP, you’re also cutting farm income,” Vilsack said.
The Democrat said it also will have a “rippling” impact on other jobs in the food chain, and the state budget.
Migrant workers and immigration policy
During his
recent visit
to the Iowa State Fairgrounds, President Donald Trump announced planned legislation that would allow farmers to vouch for some of their undocumented workers to let them stay in the country.
The president said the action was in response to requests of the industry, following his mass deportation efforts, which Vilsack said will have a “profound impact” on farming and food.
Vilsack also said the
Farm Workforce Modernization Act
, a federal bill introduced several years ago that has not passed, would have done this by creating a legal pathway for migrant farm workers to “gain legitimacy.”
“I think it’s unlikely that you’re going to see a lot of Americans take these jobs,” Vilsack said. “These are really, really, really tough jobs.”
USDA staff morale
Vilsack first took office during the Obama administration as secretary of agriculture and then again during the Biden administration. Both times, he said a survey of USDA staff showed very low morale at the start of those administrations.
“I think you’ll probably see some significant impacts in terms of morale,” Vilsack said. “Elections have consequences, and every administration has the right to do what they think is best for the country and for the workers.
“But the reality is, you can reduce the workforce, but you have to do it strategically and thoughtfully.”
More than
15,000 USDA employees
have taken a federal buyout program offered by the government following threats of office restructuring, and in some cases, staff were terminated and then brought back on. The Trump administration has said many of these roles were
probationary positions
. Some of the firings across the federal workforce were challenged in a lawsuit, but the
Supreme Court ruled
Tuesday in favor of the Trump administration’s layoffs.
“If you’re looking at wholesale reductions and massive reductions at one time, that makes it hard on those who are left,” Vilsack said.
No more ‘get big or get out’ mentality
Vilsack said there’s a “tendency” to think that “every farmer is essentially like every other farmer,” which he said is not true.
Vilsack said there are large-scale farms that represent roughly 10 percent of all farms, get around 85 percent of all agricultural income and nearly 60 percent of farm subsidies. He said the other 90 percent of small to midsized farms share what’s left of the market and subsidies.
He said this contributes to the
declining
number of farms and the difficulty farmers have to make ends meet.
“It’s a massive erosion of the basic economic unit of rural America, and I think the department, the federal government, has a responsibility to address that issue,” Vilsack said.
Earlier this spring, Vilsack spoke with farmers near Indianola, at an event sponsored by Iowa Democrats, about his idea that the
farm, rather than the farmer, should work harder
.
He shared the same idea Thursday, noting that certain forms of manure management or the climate smart commodities program could help a farm generate multiple streams of income.
“And it shouldn’t be that the strategy in farming is you have to get big or get out,” Vilsack said to reporters.
During his time at USDA, Vilsack
championed
the climate smart agriculture programs that incentivized and helped create markets for farmers who used sustainable farming practices. The Trump administration has
canceled
part of this program, the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, which it labeled as a “Biden-era climate slush fund.”
In a conversation with reporters after the taping of the show, Vilsack said the challenge will be to “keep the concept going” and to have farmers experience “some success” with being paid for sustainably produced commodities.
“This is going to continue — the challenge will be at what pace,” Vilsack said.
A recent
report
from Polk County tagged agricultural activities as the leading source of nitrate pollution in Iowa’s Des Moines and Raccoon rivers as they enter Des Moines.
Vilsack said he believes there is “definitely” a role for the federal government to play in solving the issue.
“We keep looking at this as an either-or circumstance, and I think the challenge, and the opportunity, is that we need to look at it as an ‘and’ proposition,” Vilsack said. “How do you essentially deal with the nitrate issue, (and) at the same time understand the important role of agriculture?”
Vilsack said it also fits with his idea of supporting small and midsized farmers by building extra, on-farm revenue sources via manure management strategies like an anaerobic digester. This, he said, would reduce land application of manure, which would help the nitrate levels in the river and support farmers in their operations.
He said solutions like that need to be supported with funding for research and economic development opportunities.
“I think our policymakers, our politicians, have to start thinking in terms of ‘and,’” He said. “We are a country now that is thinking in terms of ‘or,’ and that stymies — it essentially freezes us — from creative thought and creative solutions.”
Eminent domain
Vilsack said the same approach should be used for the issue of eminent domain and carbon sequestration pipelines.
“How can we have a sustainable aviation industry and the hundreds of thousands of job opportunities that it can create, and the better income for farmers it can create, and at the same time, how can we respect the needs and challenges that farms have, and families have, about their land,” he told reporters.
Vilsack said policymakers need to step back and ask: “Why is it that we have this issue? Why do people feel as strongly as they do about all of this?”
Vilsack said the reason is that Iowa hasn’t been growing, supporting the midsized farming economy or working to keep Iowans in Iowa.
“We have to move towards agriculture,” Vilsack said. “We have to create more revenue streams for farmers, we have to create more ways for that farm to work harder and smarter and more profitably.”
Vilsack also spoke with reporters about the response to bird flu, which has affected more than
174.8 million birds
since the current outbreak began in February 2022.
He said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ five-pronged, $1 billion
plan
to combat the bird flu was “really not a change in what we did before.”
Vilsack said the industry needs a usable vaccine, and said he believes “eventually it will get worked out.”
“Iowa Press” is hosted by O. Kay Henderson and featured Brianne Pfannenstiel of the Des Moines Register and Erin Murphy of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids. The
episode
with Vilsack is scheduled to air at 7:30 p.m. Friday on Iowa PBS.
This
article
first appeared in the
Iowa Capital Dispatch
.
