Obama to Appoint Vilsack to USDA

WASHINGTON—Word is President-elect Obama is poised to name Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as secretary of the USDA. Vilsack is a close ally of Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who has been a champion of the natural products industry in Congress over the years. Harking has long pushed more funding for conservation and nutrition programs, instead of towards commodities payments. Whether this Harkin-Vilsack relationship will matter going forward, however, is anybody's guess. Not much is known on Vilsack's positions on USDA issues, except he is praised by environmentalists, he advocates ethanol as an energy source, and he endorses carbon control policies that would "create home-grown carbon credits direct from the family farm."