Skip to main content
Agriculture Secretary

Agriculture Secretary

4 3.9
A government minister who leads the department that makes farming policy
  • noun
  • /ˈæɡrɪˌkʌltʃər ˈsɛkrəˌtɛri/
  • Formal
translation icon : Secretario de Agricultura
  • The Agriculture Secretary is responsible for overseeing policies that affect farmers and rural communities.
  • Agriculture Secretary Espy
  • Agriculture Secretary Mike
  • Agriculture Secretary Glickman

Examples

  • Critics point to fraud and misappropriation as reasons why the food program should be curtailed, but according to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, USDA has reduced fraud and mistakes to below 1% for food programs known as SNAP (formerly the food stamp program).

    Blog text (3)
  • Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Thursday that the administration remains committed to tax incentives supporting biofuels like ethanol.

    Blog text (33)
  • U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has set a goal of creating 100,000 new farmers within the next few years.

    Blog text (3)
  • Baker told Agriculture Secretary David Houston that he was "scared literally to death" and told Daniels "he feared the worst."

    Academic text (2014)
  • Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

    Blog text (6)
  • Based on that video, the NAACP condemned Sherrod, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called for her resignation.

    Blog text (24)
  • Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologizes to fired employee Shirley Sherrod and offers her a job opportunity within the department.

    Blog text (24)
  • Please speak out now and urge Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reform Wildlife Services from the federal government's top wildlife killers to a program that can truly resolve wildlife conflicts.

    Blog text (21)
  • "The experiments in California are part of USDA's nationwide search for reliable, affordable substitutes for methyl bromide," says Deputy Agriculture Secretary Richard Rominger.

    Academic text (2000)
  • Obama visited the school with celebrity chef Rachael Ray and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to highlight the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) new nutrition standards for school lunches, as schools undertake new efforts to provide healthy food for children.

    Blog text (32)

Synonyms

Secretary of Agriculture
vsAgriculture Secretary
  • Formal
5 4.4

A government official in charge of the country's farming policy

is the same office term but uses the alternate word order

Surface Forms

Morphology

agriculture + secretary

The meaning is directly compositional: combining 'agriculture' (farming and crop production) with 'secretary' (a senior official heading a ministry) yields a senior official responsible for agricultural policy. This is a common, cross-linguistic institutional pattern (e.g. 'Minister of Agriculture'), so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The title Agriculture Secretary comes from the two parts agriculture, meaning farming, and secretary, meaning a person who runs a government office. Picture a person with a notebook walking through fields, making rules and helping farmers. That's why the title means 'the head of a government's department for farming'.