President Barack Obama's announcement last week of his intention to nominate Tufts professor Kathleen Merrigan to the No. 2 position at the United States Department of Argiculture (USDA) has been met with praise from colleagues and outside experts in the field.
Before beginning her new position as U.S. Deputy Agriculture Secretary, Merrigan must be formally nominated and then confirmed by the Senate.
If confirmed, Merrigan will oversee over 1,000 USDA employees and supervise a multitude of topics, from the future of the world food supply and the childhood obesity epidemic to agricultural subsidies and food imports and exports, according to Jeanne Goldberg, director of the Tufts Center on Nutrition Communication at the Friedman School.
Merrigan has declined to comment publicly until after her Senate confirmation hearing. The White House has not yet set dates for her formal nomination and Senate confirmation.
"As recently as last Friday, [Merrigan] didn't know when it was going to be," Goldberg said of the Senate confirmation.
Merrigan currently serves as the director of the Center for Agriculture, Food and Environment as well as the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at Tufts' Friedman School but will leave her position at Tufts to work full time at the USDA if she is confirmed, according to Goldberg.
"I think that her vision for the future of agriculture both in the U.S. and around the world is really on target," Goldberg said. "Our loss is the USDA's gain."
Goldberg emphasized Merrigan's experience in politics as one of her qualifications for the deputy agriculture secretary position.
"She really understands policy and how policy gets made in Washington," she said. "She has huge experience with working with Congress. She's worked in the Department of Agriculture before at a high level, so she knows her way around. She will hit the deck running. She certainly understands issues that are critical to our food supply."
Other agriculture specialists and sustainable farming advocates reiterated Merrigan's experience in policymaking.
"She's a very bright professional person who obviously has worked extensively in agriculture throughout her career, and I think that experience will be valuable in the position as deputy secretary," National Farmers Union President Tom Buis told the Daily.
Buis noted that Merrigan's objectivity distinguished her work in the USDA. "When she worked at the Department of Agriculture under the Clinton administration, she did a lot of stuff under the marketing program of the USDA, and I always thought she did a very good job of balancing the demands and listening to the viewpoints of all the players," he said.
David Murphy, founder and director of Food Democracy Now, praised Merrigan's work in "promoting sustainability and family farmers" as well as her policymaking background.
"She was very instrumental in writing the national organizational standards as a staffer for [Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)], and she's gone on and had a really remarkable career when you look at it, at Tufts and beyond Tufts," Murphy told the Daily. "She's got a great track record. I think she's a really top-level choice for them. And she's a really fair-minded candidate ... I think that [Merrigan's] background will allow her to design more creative solutions rather than the standard candidate that has been chosen for that job."
Goldberg also spoke highly of Merrigan's personal qualities.
"She is a compassionate and insightful person, so her personal characteristics will hugely contribute toward who she is what she will be able to accomplish," she said.
Before coming to Tufts in 2001, Merrigan held various policymaking positions on the state, federal and international levels. She administered the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service between 1999 and 2001 and served as an aide to Leahy from 1987 to 1992, during the period that the senator chaired the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
Merrigan, an expert on organic farming and sustainability, helped draft legislation that defined organic food and established which products can be marketed as organic during her time in the Capitol.
She also served as an expert consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1998 and 2008, a senior analyst to the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture between 1994 and 1999 and a special assistant to the Texas Department of Agriculture from 1986 to 1987.
Merrigan earned her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in public policy and environmental planning in 2000.
