Agriculture Secretary
- noun
- /ˈæɡrɪˌkʌltʃər ˈsɛkrəˌtɛri/
- Formal
- The Agriculture Secretary is responsible for overseeing policies that affect farmers and rural communities.
- Agriculture Secretary Espy
- Agriculture Secretary Mike
- Agriculture Secretary Glickman
Examples
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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).
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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Thursday that the administration remains committed to tax incentives supporting biofuels like ethanol.
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U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has set a goal of creating 100,000 new farmers within the next few years.
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Baker told Agriculture Secretary David Houston that he was "scared literally to death" and told Daniels "he feared the worst."
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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
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Based on that video, the NAACP condemned Sherrod, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called for her resignation.
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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologizes to fired employee Shirley Sherrod and offers her a job opportunity within the department.
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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.
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"The experiments in California are part of USDA's nationwide search for reliable, affordable substitutes for methyl bromide," says Deputy Agriculture Secretary Richard Rominger.
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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.
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Synonyms
A government official in charge of the country's farming policy
Surface Forms
Morphology
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'.