MLB Pitcher Interning at USDA

Armed with a 95 mile-per-hour fastball and an interest in farm policy (well, his Princeton University degree and 3.8 GPA probably didn't hurt either), the Pittsburgh Pirates' Ross Ohlendorf applied for, and received, an internship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during Major League Baseball's current off-season.

Ohlendorf says he's always been interested in how government works, and since his family raises Longhorns on a ranch outside of Austin, Texas, an internship at the USDA seemed like the perfect fit.

After meeting Secretary Tom Vilsack in Pittsburgh (where Vilsack was on hand to throw out the first pitch at a Pirates game), Ohlendorf was able to follow up through email and secure an internship working on, among other things, the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

Now before you all get up in arms about the evils of NAIS, lets give Ohlendorf the benefit of the doubt.  He's doing this as a learning experience more than anything else, and since he's been said to be "the smartest person in any room he enters," I feel strongly that Ohlendorf will analyze NAIS closely enough to realize that it hurts small family farmers.

Also, he's made statements indicating his interest in learning more about organic and grass-fed programs:

I'm becoming more familiar with the demand for grass-fed and local products. There's more of a market that we can explore. ... I'm just learning about certification programs that USDA runs, where you can become organically-certified, or grass-fed certified.

I obviously can't tell you, and wouldn't want to speculate, about Ohlendorf's views on what constitutes "sustainable agriculture."  But I am hoping that his interest in agriculture in general will eventually give sustainable food advocates another high-profile ally.

There also haven't been a whole lot of reasons to cheer for the Pirates recently, but now, there's certainly one more.

(Photo credit: jmd41280 on Flickr)

*Shout out to my friend Evan for finding this story for me.