text: Actions Vilsack appointed Shirley Sherrod as the Georgia Director of Rural Development, saying she would be an "important advocate on behalf of rural communities". Months after the appointment, Vilsack forced her to resign based on accusations of considering race in the handling of her job responsibilities at a private advocacy firm in 1986. Subsequent reports claimed that Vilsack had overreacted to a selectively edited tape of a speech that Sherrod had given to the NAACP.  The edited tape had been posted online by conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart. Vilsack expressed his "deep regret" to Sherrod in acting hastily.
  On January 24, 2012, Obama appointed Vilsack the designated survivor during the President's State of the Union address.
  Beef advocacy
  In March 2012, Vilsack joined three midwest governors in a campaign to defend the use of a processed beef product made from trimmings left after beef carcasses are butchered, dubbed "pink slime" by its critics. He said "it's safe, it contains less fat and historically it's been less expensive" and that it should be available to consumers and school districts that want to buy it.
  Global warming
  At a Drake University forum on climate change April 22, 2014, Vilsack stated "agriculture tends to take the brunt of criticism about climate change, but the industry contributes only 9percent of the greenhouse gases blamed for a warming planet" and that while there were "challenges globally in terms of agriculture and its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions that's not necessarily the case in the United States."