The Future of American Agriculture
Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Sponsored by the Leopold Centerfor Sustainable Agriculture and part of the Iowa State University National Affairs Series (funded by GSB)
October 20, 2009
Ames
Kathleen Merrigan is the former director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at Tufts University, where she was on faculty in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. As a staffer on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, she helped shape the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which created national standards for organic foods and a federal program to accredit them. She has also served as administrator of the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, which oversees the agency's organic program. Merrigan holds a doctorate in Public Policy and Environmental Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Why she came to ISU: " I want to bring the nation’s students into the discussion. At the heart of the local food revolution, as some call it, are food and agricultural systems that are sustainable for the next generation. I need you to weigh in with ideas that will contribute to a discussion that is gaining momentum."
About the USDA's newest initiative, Know Your Farmer Know Your Food:
"Maybe not every family needs an accountant or a lawyer, but every family needs a farmer."
"Our new initiative, 'Know Your Farmer Know Your Food,' is about reorienting our ship at the USDA," Merrigan said. "It's about starting a national conversation about food."
Merrigan visits with ISU students after the lecture and encouraged them to consider a career in agriculture.
Merrigan shares conversation with Leopold Center director Jerry DeWitt (left) and Distinguished Fellow Fred Kirschenmann, both of whom she has known for a number of years.
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