WASHINGTON – Media reports indicate President-elect Donald Trump has tapped former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue as his nominee for Secretary of Agriculture. Below is a statement on the announcement from EWG Senior VP for Government Affairs Scott Faber:
"It should be no surprise that the incoming Trump administration, which has proposed putting executives from Big Food and Big Oil in top cabinet positions, would pick someone like Governor Perdue – who has received taxpayer-funded farm subsidies – to lead the Department of Agriculture. We hope the Senate will look closely at these subsidies as well as at the political contributions Governor Perdue has received from food giants, farm chemical companies and farm lobbyists, and ask whether he will help fix or help defend a subsidy system rigged against family farmers and the environment. It’s certainly hard to imagine that a former fertilizer salesman will tackle the unregulated farm pollution that poisons our drinking water, turns Lake Erie green, and fouls the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.”
Between 1995 and 2004, Perdue took in more than $278,000 in federal farm subsidy dollars courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.
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