Omnivore Author for Agriculture Secretary?

As if candidate Obama wasn’t served enough grief with his arugula during the campaign, his supporters are now petitioning President-elect Obama to appoint Berkeley journalism professor Michael Pollan as Secretary of Agriculture. A celebrated nature writer, author of the award-winning The Omnivore’s Dilemma and current bestseller In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, foodie demigod Pollan recently wrote to Mr. Obama about food policy, and shared the letter with a few friends via the New York Times Magazine.

A talented, insightful writer, Mr. Pollan might be a valuable advisor for more rational food policy, but his appointment as Agriculture Secretary is simply not on the table.

Michael Pollan has elaborated Wendell Berry’s observation that “eating is an agricultural act,” following the food chain backwards from plate to plow, urging eaters to avert ecological disaster by demanding better foodstuffs. The practical utility of this claim is not at issue here; neither is Mr. Pollan’s lack of administrative experience. A Pollan appointment is simply not on the menu due to the scope of USDA’s mission and the facts of political life.

Agriculture is not just about food, and neither is USDA. The department’s mission includes virtually all aspects of food, fiber, and forest products, conditions in the rural areas that produce them, and the concerns of rural Americans, farmers, growers, ranchers, packers, processors, distributors, and consumers. The breadth of this mission, international in scope, has transformed USDA into a conglomerate of 17 Agencies and 12 Offices dealing with imports and exports, inspection, legal compliance, rural economic development, credit, loan, and insurance programs, commodities, forest and grassland ecology, and more.

What you put on your plate and in your belly, Mr. Pollan’s focal point, has little to do with most of these issues. Michael Pollan could certainly make valuable contributions to several USDA agencies (Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion [CNPP], Office of Communications [OC]), but overall department leadership is well beyond his experience, interests, and concerns. Does he even want the job?

There are also political realities. Mr. Obama prevailed in Iowa despite the Arugula Factor, winning the caucus and general election, but most agricultural states in the South and Mid-America voted for his opponent. The new administration will need the cooperation of “Red State” Congressional delegations to achieve its goals at home and abroad. Appointing a consumer-oriented agricultural theorist to head USDA will not win Congressional friends in farm country.

Foodies bristle at the observation that their views are not shared in lower socio-economic strata, but the fact is well-known to our leaders. Mr. Obama followed his arugula gaffe with praise of Philly cheesesteak, Senator Clinton campaigned by downing boilermakers, and Governor Palin endorsed Diet Dr Pepper. These items are not on the menu  at Chez Panisse and other Berkeley eateries where Mr. Pollan is revered. The voting may be over, but 21st century campaigns never end.

Mr. Obama needs to eschew elitist appearances to maintain popular support among burger-eating Real Americans in this time of economic peril. A Berkeley professor who tells Twinkie-chomping citizens what to eat would be an indigestible Agriculture appointment.

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com