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Perdue is a former Republican governor of the largely agricultural state of Georgia and the current head of Perdue Partners LLC, the agribusiness trading company he founded after his term as governor.
Following the announcement of his nomination on 18 January, initial reactions from US farming industry bodies was positive. The American Farm Bureau welcomed “an outstanding nominee” who is both “a businessman” and “understands the challenges facing rural America because that’s where he was born and raised”.
Perdue has a unique and expert understanding of both the business and scientific sides of agriculture
Tracy Bunner, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said: “As a lifelong agri-businessman and veterinarian, as well as the two-term governor of a state where agriculture’s the largest industry, Governor Perdue has a unique and expert understanding of both the business and scientific sides of agriculture.”
But in an opinion article published by The Guardian on Sunday, Ricardo J Salvador and Nora Gilbert of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ food and environment programme questioned Perdue’s ability to represent all American farmers.
“Important to recognize are the roughly 700,000 growers – a third of American farmers – who earn between $10,000 and $250,000 annually, comprising arguably the agricultural equivalent of the middle class. It is these farmers, the rank and file of American agriculture, who are unlikely to be served by Perdue’s agenda,” the representatives of the US science advocacy group wrote.
If Perdue insists on serving mainly the interest of Big Ag, this will not ‘make American agriculture great again’
They scrutinised his record as Georgia governor from 2003 to 2011 and found that he supported factory farm expansion, cracked down on immigration and opposed air quality regulation.
“If Perdue insists on serving mainly the interest of Big Ag, this will not ‘make American agriculture great again’,” Salvador and Gilbert wrote. “Instead, it will make American agriculture 1980s again, a decade well known in the farming community for the worst conditions their generation has endured. Plagued by low prices, consolidation and land loss, farmers and ranchers had no choice but to exit the profession en masse, unable to make ends meet.”
The spectre of the 1980s was also raised by Kansas Republican Senator Pat Roberts, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture now tasked with confirming Perdue as USDA secretary. “As we write a new farm bill, the secretary must understand that we are operating in a new landscape,” Roberts said in a statement. “Everyone in farm country is having a hard time. We need a secretary who can recall the 1980s and will do everything within their power to make sure we do not return to those conditions.”
The farm bill defines US agricultural policy much like the CAP in Europe and its current version expires in 2018. If confirmed by the Senate in the coming weeks, Perdue will lead the way in deciding how US farmers should be supported in the coming years, which will in turn affect world agri-food markets.
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