Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 4/19/18


Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced a new boss for USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), among other appointments to agency departments.

Ken Isley will take the reins at FAS, which spearheads USDA’s overseas programs, including enhancing export opportunities for the meat industry. 

Isley most recently served as special adviser for Corteva Agriscience, the agriculture division of DowDuPont. For the previous five years, he was vice president, general counsel and secretary of Dow AgroSciences, and a member of Dow AgroSciences’ corporate management committee. Isley was also associate general counsel of Dow, with oversight of Dow’s Latin America legal group. He spent nearly 29 years of service at Dow.

Perdue’s other appointments include Joel Baxley as Rural Housing Service (RHS) administrator, Martin Barbre as Risk Management Agency (RMA) administrator, and Tommie Williams as minister-counselor for agriculture at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome.

“President Trump has made increasing prosperity in rural America a priority for his administration, and our new USDA team members will be key in advancing us toward that goal,” Perdue said in a news release. “Improving economic conditions in rural America involves providing services to farmers, ranchers, foresters and producers, and it also means helping people who live in those communities. In addition, we must continually try to find new markets for the agricultural bounty they produce.  Our new leaders in FAS, RHS and RMA will help us carry out our mission.”

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