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United States Secretary of Agriculture

The United States Secretary of Agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture concerned with land and food as well as agriculture and rural development. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet.

The department includes several organizations. The 190 million acres of national forests and grasslands are managed by the United States Forest Service. The safety of food produced and sold here is ensured by the United States Food Safety and Inspection Service. Advice for farmers and gardeners is provided by the United States Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service.

Secretaries of Agriculture
Name Term of Office President(s) served under
Norman Jay Coleman February 15, 1889 - March 6, 1889 Grover Cleveland
Jeremiah McLain Rusk March 6, 1889 - March 6, 1893 Benjamin Harrison
Julius Sterling Morton March 7, 1893 - March 5, 1897 Grover Cleveland
James Wilson March 6, 1897 - March 5, 1913 William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt,
William Howard Taft
David Franklin Houston March 6, 1913 - February 2, 1920 Woodrow Wilson
Edwin Thomas Meredith February 2, 1920 - March 4, 1921 Woodrow Wilson
Henry Cantwell Wallace March 5, 1921 - October 25, 1924 Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge
Howard Mason Gore November 22, 1924 - March 4, 1925 Calvin Coolidge
William Marion Jardine March 5, 1925 - March 4, 1929 Calvin Coolidge
Arthur Mastick Hyde March 6, 1929 - March 4, 1933 Herbert Hoover
Henry Agard Wallace March 4, 1933 - September 4, 1940 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Claude Raymond Wickard September 5, 1940 - June 29, 1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman
Clinton Presba Anderson June 30, 1945 - May 10, 1948 Harry S. Truman
Charles Franklin Brannan June 2, 1948 - January 20, 1953 Harry S. Truman
Ezra Taft Benson January 21, 1953 - January 20, 1961 Dwight D. Eisenhower
Orville Lothrop Freeman January 21, 1961 - January 20, 1969 John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson
Clifford Morris Hardin January 21, 1969 - November 17, 1971 Richard Nixon
Earl Lauer Butz December 2, 1971 - October 4, 1976 Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford
John Albert Knebel November 4, 1976 - January 20, 1977 Gerald Ford
Robert Selmer Bergland January 23, 1977 - January 20, 1981 Jimmy Carter
John Rusling Block January 23, 1981 - February 14, 1986 Ronald Reagan
Richard Edmund Lyng March 7, 1986 - January 21, 1989 Ronald Reagan
Clayton Keith Yeutter February 16, 1989 - March 1, 1991 George H. W. Bush
Edward Rell Madigan March 12, 1991 - January 20, 1993 George H. W. Bush
A. Michael Espy January 22, 1993 - December 31, 1994 Bill Clinton
Daniel Robert Glickman March 30, 1995 - January 19, 2001 Bill Clinton
Ann Margaret Veneman January 20, 2001 - present George W. Bush