Senate Confirms Northey For Key USDA Job

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 27, 2018 – The National Pork Producers Council applauded today’s Senate confirmation of Bill Northey for key a position in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The upper house approved the nominee by voice vote.

Northey, who is serving his third term as Iowa’s agriculture secretary, will be USDA’s undersecretary for farm production and conservation.

“Secretary Northey will be great asset at USDA for U.S. agriculture,” said NPPC President Ken Maschhoff, a pork producer from Carlyle, Ill. “Farmers and ranchers couldn’t ask for a better person to lead this important USDA department.”

Before heading the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Northey served as president of the National Corn Growers Association and on Iowa’s USDA Farm Service Agency state committee. He also was a Dickinson County (Iowa) Soil and Water Conservation District commissioner.

In his job at USDA, Northey will oversee the Farm Service Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Risk Management Agency. Programs within those departments include crop insurance, conservation, disaster assistance and producer lending services.

“The secretary is a farmer and has been a great leader for Iowa agriculture over the past 11 years,” Maschhoff said. “He’s coming to USDA at a critical time, with Congress getting down to work on the next Farm Bill, which the livestock industry wants to include a vaccine bank to address a Foot-and-Mouth Disease outbreak.”

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NPPC is the global voice for the U.S. pork industry, protecting the livelihoods of America’s 60,000 pork producers, who abide by ethical principles in caring for their animals, in protecting the environment and public health and in providing safe, wholesome, nutritious pork products to consumers worldwide. For more information, visit www.nppc.org.