In 2019, right before one of her first official meetings as the U.S. representative for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, Xochitl Torres Small was nervous. “I couldn’t psych myself up. It wasn’t enough to say, I am powerful; I can do this,” she recalls. “So instead I told myself that the people I represent deserve to be in this room. And it gave me this ability to walk in and do exactly what I needed to do.” Of course, she could do “this,” and President Biden recognized that, eventually tapping her for two jobs at the USDA.
In her current role, as the deputy secretary of agriculture, “I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can make sure people feel like the USDA is something that’s for them. Because we all have a role in the food system,” she says. She spends time working on online portals for farmers to pay their loans, talking to college agriculture students, making sure soon-to-be moms can sign up for the WIC nutrition program, investing in smaller meat processors, and more.
While she handles the policy side, she offers a few steps the rest of us can take: Lobby your school district to get local foods to kids’ classrooms, and buy your meat close to home. She also suggests chatting up the farmers at the markets. “The best conversations I have with farmers are about why they do what they do and what they want for their kids,” she says. —L.F.
FROM LEFT: COURTESY OF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE/LANCE CHEUNG; COURTESY OF DANI DAZEY
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