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Dan Glickman
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Live Web cast January 11, 2001 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT
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Diet Talk
Morning Edition, January 11, 2001
NPR's Madeleine Brand talks with Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman about diet.
Dan Glickman’s almost five years as the 26th Secretary
of Agriculture have not been easy. During his tenure,
commodity prices and agricultural exports have been on
a roller coaster of record highs and historic lows,
with grain prices suffering a three-year slump that
has resulted in skyrocketing federal farm subsidies.
He has had to help manage disagreements with the
European Union over genetically modified organisms and
hormone-treated beef, and face court battles over food
safety initiatives taken during the Clinton presidency
and the Agriculture Department's treatment of minority
farmers.
Under his leadership, the USDA has started responding
to important trends in American society. Early in
December, Glickman announced that the department would
soon release a report on the health and nutrition
effects of popular diets that fuel a multi-billion
dollar industry. Two weeks later, he presented the
first set of national standards for organic foods. On
the international front, the secretary campaigned hard
for congressional approval for China’s accession to
the World Trade Organization, saying it would slash
barriers keeping U.S. farm products out of that huge
market.
Glickman sought to modernize the USDA and its
policies, replacing antiquated food safety regulations
with a new science-based meat and poultry inspection
system and restructuring and cutting the cost of the
agency’s large field office structure. He is pleased
of the department’s civil rights record during his
tenure, saying that the USDA had reviewed its policies
and become more diverse and welcoming to women and
minorities.
Before joining the Clinton team, Glickman served from
1977 to 1995 as a congressman from Kansas' 4th
District, which includes his hometown, Wichita. He
served on the House Agriculture Committee, and for six
years chaired the Subcommittee on Wheat, Soybeans, and
Feed Grains, which had jurisdiction over nearly
three-quarters of the USDA farm program budget. A
leading congressional expert of aviation policy,
Glickman authored legislation creating product
liability protection for small airplane manufacturers.
He also chaired the House Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence and wrote a law increasing criminal
penalties for the destruction of religious property.
Glickman began his public service as a member and
president of the Wichita School Board. He was a
partner in the law firm of Sargent, Klenda and
Glickman, and served as a trial attorney for the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission. Glickman received
his B.A. from the University of Michigan and his law
degree from George Washington University.
He is married to Rhoda Yura of Detroit; they have two
adult children.
Related Websites:
Department of Agriculture
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