New ag secretary has big job ahead

Our best wishes go to Brooke Rollins, a lawyer and policy expert from Texas who President-elect Donald Trump has nominated to be the next secretary of agriculture.

As the head of USDA, she will be in charge of everything from 188 million acres of national forests to the Risk Management Agency, which administers the nation's crop insurance programs that keep America's farmers from going broke when the weather, or crop prices - or both - misbehave.

But the most important thing an agriculture secretary can have is a direct line to the White House, and that appears to be Rollins's strong suit. She worked for Trump during his first term and has him on speed dial.

This will be particularly important when Trump picks a trade fight with some of U.S. farmers' most important overseas customers. Mexico, Canada and China are among the countries Trump has already targeted. Together the three countries buy more than $100 billion in U.S. agricultural products, so Rollins will need to make sure farmers aren't the collateral damage in any trade wars.

Agriculture policy and programs are primarily decided by Congress in its farm bill, which is developed every five years, or whenever it gets around to it. What Rollins can do in the coming year is put the spurs to Congress to pass a farm bill. It would be best if the lame duck Congress got it done, but Democrats are still licking their wounds from the political butt-kicking they received in the election. It's hard to say what they'll do.

Once Rollins moves into the USDA's sprawling complex of buildings, she will notice the department has a massive workforce of nearly 100,000. In addition to the "normal" jobs such as rangeland managers, foresters and soil conservationists, they include airplane pilots, social workers and a "climate hub fellow" in California.

One wonders just how many "climate hub fellows" USDA has.

Another challenge for Rollins is the extraordinary job her predecessor, Tom Vilsack, did. A former governor of Iowa, Vilsack had a deep understanding of U.S. agriculture. That depth of knowledge was invaluable when he was working with his bosses, Joe Biden and Barack Obama, who didn't appear to know one end of a cow from the other.

Combined with an extra large helping of common sense, Vilsack managed to steer the USDA near the middle of the road, even when the Environmental Protection Agency and National Marine Fisheries Service were targeting farmers and ranchers.

Our hope is that Rollins can do the same for the incoming Trump administration. The president would do well in listen closely to advice coming from her direction. It will help him steer clear of pitfalls, many of which will be easily avoidable.