Tom Vilsack

What's next after 12 years at the USDA?

- Chuck Abbott

For former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, retirement at age 74 is out of the question. “There’s work to be done in food and nutrition security,” said the tireless proponent for climate-smart agriculture and creating new sources of farm income. “And I will look for opportunities to be engaged in that effort,” he added during his final days in office.

On Jan. 28, about two weeks after Successful Farming sat down with Vilsack, he was announced as the CEO of the World Food Prize Foundation. Leading the World Food Prize Foundation offers “an opportunity to elevate innovation, to be able to tell the story of agriculture globally, to celebrate that story, to highlight the real champions who are trying to address one of the great challenges we face as humankind, which is the issue of making sure that we can feed people,” Vilsack told Agri-Pulse.

Vilsack will assume the role on March 1, following several leadership changes at the foundation. Former Iowa governor and U.S. ambassador to China Terry Branstad is stepping down as president and will be replaced by Mashal Husain, the foundation’s chief operating officer.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for me to basically continue a lot of the work that I did as a secretary and, frankly, as governor of Iowa,” Vilsack said. “I think it’s an opportunity as well for me to try to figure out ways in which I can lend my experience and the connections that I’ve had over the course of many, many years, to build support for the foundation’s work.”

USDA Tenure

With nearly 12 years in the Obama and Biden administrations, Vilsack was the second-longest serving agriculture secretary. The record for cabinet service is held by “Tama Jim” Wilson, an Iowan who was agriculture secretary for 16 years. “I’m also the sixth-longest serving cabinet member of any kind,” Vilsack added during the interview in his office at USDA headquarters, with a commanding view of the Washington Monument.