Dan Glickman is the former Secretary of Agriculture in the Clinton Administation. While head of the United States Department of Agriculture and member of President Clinton's cabinet, Dan Glickman shaped policy on everything from nutrition to food safety to environmental protection.

Glickman will call on that experience as he addresses graduates of Tufts' Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.

The only independent graduate school of nutrition, Tufts' Nutrition School produces graduates with expertise in a wide range of fields. Under the umbrella of one school, they study a huge range of topics from humanitarian assistance, sustainable agriculture, food and nutrition policy, nutrition communications as well as the biochemical, physiological, cellular and molecular processes in nutrition as they apply to human life.

Glickman currently is a partner at a Washington Public Law and Policy Firm.  He spent six years heading up the USDA. Under his guidance, the department modernized food safety regulations, forged international trade agreements to expand U.S. markets, and improved its commitment to fairness and equality in civil rights.

Prior to taking his post in the Clinton Administration, Glickman served as a Congressman for 18 years.. Glickman, while Secretary of Agriculture focus was on food safety and the role of biotechnology. Glickman also co-chaired the Presidential Food Safety Council.

Glickman feels the current system for protecting food in the U.S. needs a major overhaul.  He feels the events of September 11th uncovered weaknesses that must be addressed right away. 

Glickman has first-hand experience dealing with potential threats to the U.S. food supply..

Glickman says the U.S. needs to remain focused on improving and expanding the system that protects the food supply.

Glickman feels one of the other growing concerns for the USDA is managing the expansion of biotechnology, which became a major concern while he was head of the department.Glickman left the USDA in 2001, before he left he cautioned his replacement, Ann Veneman that the debate was far from over in reagard to biotechnology.

One of Glickman's greatest accomplishments came in the last few months before he stepped down. President Clinton implemented one of the most sweeping environmental protection plans of the last century which protects over 60 million acres of national forests from logging and mining.