As AFP puts it:
[Obama] nominated former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack as his secretary of agriculture, putting the fervent advocate of corn-based ethanol in charge of the nation's much-criticized 300-billion-dollar farm spending.
I can think of a few U.S. trading partners who will not like this pick.
ADDED:
On the other hand, I had not realized this:
To his credit, he has advocated phasing out subsidies to corn-based ethanol (a brave stance for an Iowa man) and last year endorsed removing the tariff on Brazilian sugar-based ethanol.
