Bob Bergland, former congressman and Secretary of Agriculture under President Carter, passed away this past weekend in Roseau, Minnesota. He had the unenviable duty of defending to his fellow farmers the Carter administration’s highly unpopular grain embargo of the Soviet Union, despite his personal opposition to that move by his boss.
Bergland, 90, was a classic stoic Norwegian-American who lived the ups and downs of life on the land. He lost a farm, was fired from a construction job for union organizing, understood the realities of not having enough money to purchase milk for his family, and believed in all his heart that the role of government was to both provide the tools to allow people to try and succeed and also to be there when they needed a helping hand — like buying milk. It absolutely frosted him to hear people criticize those who were struggling.
Bergland also understood that serving “at the pleasure of the president” sometimes meant you had to deal with the ramifications administrative actions:
When President Carter ordered a U.S. grain embargo against the Soviet Union in 1980 after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in late 1979, Secretary of Agriculture Bergland was dispatched to the Midwest during that 1980 campaign year to try to calm angry farmers. His unflappable demeanor was a valuable asset. Vice President Walter Mondale recalled Sunday that neither he nor Bergland liked the grain embargo. “I don’t think it was good policy,” he told the Associated Press. “This is going to mean Russians are going to buy their grain somewhere else. ... I urged the president not to do it. He felt he had to do it.”
To Bergland, making sure the bigger picture was kept in mind was important. Said his daughter:
“His view was always global first — what’s best for the world?” Vatnsdal remembered. “Secondly, he asked what’s best for the country, then what’s best for his state, then what’s best personally.”
In a scrum that seems eerily reminiscent of battles still being fought all these years later,
Mr. Bergland also created an assistant secretary of agriculture to protect consumer interests, and named Carol Tucker Foreman, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America, to fill it. She was a tough adversary of food processors, meatpackers and, indirectly, of farmers, demanding true-weight labeling on food packages, ordering junk food off school lunches, tightening rules on preservatives and launching studies on carcinogens and dietary effects on health.
Having people like Bergland in a cabinet can provide a perspective, that those who govern understand the struggles of the governed. It’s a trait that too many administrations lack. If only we had more Bob Berglands in government.