Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, recently named U.S. Secretary of Agriculture by President-elect Barack Obama, needs to stop aspiring to something more and start taking his current job seriously. That’s the word from long-time Illinois agriculture writer Alan Guebert.

“My only encounter with [Vilsack] came on a sunny 1997 September day when we both addressed an Iowa Farmers Union meeting,” Guebert wrote in a recent syndicated column. “Vilsack was cruising for ag endorsements to boost his bid to succeed then-retiring Gov. For Life, Republican and farmer, Terry Branstad.”

As Vilsack spoke, I asked his lone aide if the senator was running as an independent.

Why?

Well, I replied, his campaign literature didn’t identify him as either a Republican or a Democrat. So, he must be running either as an independent or a chicken, right — too scared to list his party affiliation.

According to Guebert, the lacking campaign literature epitomized Vilsack’s tenure as governor and his constant aspirations for the future.

“His gung-ho boosterism of ‘pharming’ earned him the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s ‘Governor of the Year’ award in 2001,” Guebert wrote. “To sustainable and organic farm and food backers, this was akin to Attila the Hun annointing Vilsack ‘Pillager of the Year.’ To the then-growing movement, it was, and remains, an unforgivable wrong step in the wrong direction for the governor of one of America’s leading food states.”

What will happen once Vilsack takes the lead at the USDA, according to Guebert, will depend on Vilsack’s ambition. If Vilsack views “his tenure at the USDA as the climax of his political career,” Guebert believes he can finally shed his close knit friendship with big agri-business and, perhaps, give farmers and food they produce top federal billing.

“What remains to be seen is if he is an independent leader or just another agbiz chicken,” Guebert surmized.