Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Nominated

President Barack Obama this week announced his intention to nominate Kathleen A. Merrigan to be deputy secretary of agriculture.

Merrigan currently is an assistant professor and Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment M.S. and Ph.D. Program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, Boston.

In 1999, she was appointed administrator of USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service by then-President Clinton. From 1987 to 1992 she was a staff member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry where she helped develop the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 which mandated national organic standards and a program of federal accreditation.

Chuck Connor held this position under the last administration.