Former Governor of Georgia Sonny Perdue has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as the Secretary of Agriculture, overseeing one of the nation’s largest departments with more than 100,000 employees.
He grew up as a farmer’s son in Houston County, Georgia, and was a captain in the U.S. Air Force.
Perdue was a state senator as a Democrat from 1990 to 1998 and then served as a Republican Senator between 1998 and 2001, before becoming the State’s first Republican Governor since 1868.
He is most famous for publicly praying for rain during the drought in 2007. He formerly ran a grain and fertilizer company and as Governor helped make Georgia one of the nation’s top producers of chicken.
Editor’s Note: While Food Tank was hopeful that the Trump Administration would choose a nominee with more experience in agricultural policy, we hope that Perdue will seek advice from farmers’ organizations and others who are focused on finding ways to make the food system more economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable.
