Moseley, Hawks Named to USDA Posts

April 4, 2001

Indiana farmer and former USDA official James R. Moseley has been named to become deputy secretary of agriculture. William T. Hawks of Mississippi was nominated to be the under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman announced the nominations to agricultural reporters at her USDA office minutes before they were announced at the White House.

Moseley, an Indiana hog farmer with 2,800 acres of land, is a Midwesterner and an active farmer, two criteria stressed by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA). In announcing the appointments, Veneman said she considers agriculture as a regional enterprise and indicated she intended to have the regions of the country represented in her appointments.

From 1989-90 Moseley was the agricultural advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency, reporting to then EPA Administrator William Reilly. He represented EPA as liaison to the agricultural community as well, bringing to the current administration a working knowledge of EPA and USDA.

He served as assistant secretary at USDA for natural resources and environment from 1990-92, administering what was then the Soil Conservation Service and the Forest Service. Such issues as the spotted owl (endangered species), old-growth forests, the Exxon Valdez oil spill and an international forestry agreement for the environmental summit in Rio in July 1992 occurred on his watch.

Moseley also has served, since Nov. 2, 1992, as director of agricultural services and regulations for the state of Indiana at Purdue University, his alma mater where he earned a bachelor's degree in horticulture in 1973.

The businesses he and his wife, Kathy, operate include AgRidge Farms where 50,000 hogs are raised each year, Moseley Land Corporation and Infinity Pork, LLC.

Hawks also is a working farmer with 7,700 acres in three counties in north Mississippi consisting of 5,200 acres of soybeans, 3,000 acres of double-cropped winter wheat and 2,500 acres of corn. He and his wife, Diane, also own DeSoto East, Inc., a residential development company.

In December 1994 he was elected to the Mississippi State Senate where he served for five years, working on committees with agriculture and environmental jurisdictions. During the early 1990s he owned and managed Northwest Mississippi Flying Service, Inc., an agricultural aerial application services and also owned and operated a recreational airport. Hawks has worked in various Republican state and national elections, serving as national co-chairman of Farmers and Ranchers for Bush in the former President's re-election campaign in 1992. He also worked for the campaign of former Sen. Robert Dole and was co-chairman of the Mississippi Agriculture for George W. Bush campaign last year.