Former Ag Secretary Bergland Dies At Age 90

Bob Bergland, who was President Jimmy Carter’s secretary of agriculture, has died. He was 90. Bergland led the Agriculture Department at a tumultuous time that included protests in 1979 by farmers who drove their tractors to Washington D.C., demanding higher price supports. The farmers broke into the Department of Agriculture building, briefly occupying Bergland’s office. He also had the unenviable job or defending to farmers President Carter’s grain embargo against the Soviet Union in 1980 to protest that country's invasion of Afghanistan. Prior to his Cabinet position, Bergland served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Minnesota’s 7th District from 1971 to 1977. Bergland died in a nursing home in his hometown of Roseau, Minn.