The current and former Deputy Secretaries of Agriculture were together on Tuesday in Washington DC at the United Soybean Board Biobased Products Stakeholders Dialogue. It is being held at George Washington University where Kathleen Merrigan now serves as Director of Sustainability and she was pleased to host her successor Krysta Harden as keynote speaker at the event.
Both Harden and Merrigan are ardent supporters of increasing the development and use of biobased products and Merrigan was pleased to be able to welcome everyone to GW. “It’s a great place to be around issues of sustainability,” said Merrigan. “We hold sustainability near and dear to our hearts as one of the nine core values of the university.” Kathleen Merrigan welcomes USB Biobased Dialogue to GW University
Harden says it has been difficult to fill the shoes of Merrigan, who just stepped down as USDA deputy secretary about a year ago. “She did a great job opening up the agenda and the dialogue for us,” said Harden. “It’s been fun to build on her legacy.”
One of Harden’s primary jobs right now is implementing the new farm bill and she is pleased with how it is going so far. “The secretary asked me to lead the process,” she said. “He said do it quickly, folks have been waiting a long time, but also do it right.” She is pleased that the new farm bill includes several initiatives for biobased products and expands the categories to including more products.
Interview with Deputy Ag Secretary Krysta Harden