Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced Friday a slate of presidential appointments for key Farm Service Agency and Rural Development state director roles.
They include Eric Koan, the new director of Rural Development for Alaska. Koan, of Wasilla, is a graduate of Michigan State University with an Agribusiness Management degree. He was subsequently hired by USDA Rural Development, starting in Michigan and then transferring to Alaska. He retired in 2019 but is coming back out of retirement to work for the Trump Administration.
“When America’s farming communities prosper, the entire nation thrives. This new group of USDA appointees will ensure President Trump’s America First agenda is a reality in rural areas across the country. I am grateful for the leadership of these new state directors and look forward to their work reorienting the agency to put Farmers First again,” said Secretary Rollins.
Rural Development state directors focus on finding ways to empower rural America and unleash economic prosperity.
Under the Biden Administration, the Alaska role was held by Julia Hnilicka. Jerry Ward was the RD director under Trump 1.
Imagine all the USDA to quality meat the residents could utilize if Alaska Fish and Game managed HABITAT and PREDATORS (not the indoctrinating kind) instead of for the most part, only managing people.
Why are we spending money on a trip to Mars?
Excellent Eric is a great choice.
Eric Koan is a great choice. He’s a hardworking guy with values and integrity. Congratulations.
Every rural village south of the Brooks Range owns a piece of land that can sustainably farm potatoes and rye year round for the entire village. They can also pasture sheep breeds acclimated to the subartic, assuming sheep are kept in barns and fed with locally grown hay. The problem is no one in the villages will invest the time to become self sufficient. Inb4 someone mentions a village in the southeast has a community garden that’s heavily subsidized
We need to get our farming/ranching back. We don’t produce food anymore (I did see some peanuts that were grown in America). Our livestock levels are the lowest they’ve been in over 50 years. Our farmlands are being sold out to foreign governments and billionaires like Bill Gates. We need to turn this around fast.
More government waste: the department and personnel should be cut.
Now, if only the USDA (along with the FDA) did not do everything within its power to undermine, hamper, hamstring and suffocate small growers and agricultural businesses in mountains of regulations, mandates and fines that have been expressly designed to favor giant corporate interests.
What exactly did Hnilicka do during her years under Biden? Never heard of her before.
Julia Hnilicka ran against Mike Cronk for a state House seat in 2020. Cronk cleaned her clock. The, another little commie girl, Savannah Fletcher, ran against Mike Cronk for a state Senate seat in 2024. Cronk cleaned her clock. Thank you Senator Mike Cronk. You’ve kept these left-wing, brainwashed little girls from gaining public office.
Exactly. Why are colleges cranking out all of these psycho women? What is to be gained in society by them?
He will now control the Forest Circus(part of the USDA!
Alaska has some rural areas that produce nothing. The same is true for other rural parts of America- I saw the Kentucky governor saying the only good jobs in rural areas were schools and hospitals. I asked my wife, “what do they produce in the Y-K Delta?” She thought a moment and said, “babies, lots of babies”.