Ann Veneman

Context: Veneman began her legal career as a staff attorney with the General Counsel's office of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District in Oakland, California, in 1976. In 1978, she returned to Modesto, where she served as a Deputy Public Defender. In 1980, she joined the Modesto law firm of Damrell, Damrell and Nelson, where she was an associate and later a partner.  Veneman joined the United States Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service in 1986, serving as Associate Administrator until 1989. During this time she worked on the Uruguay Round talks for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). She subsequently served as Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture for International Affairs and Commodity Programs from 1989 to 1991. From 1991 to 1993, she served as United States Department of Agriculture's Deputy Secretary, the first woman appointed as the Department's second-highest-ranking official. At this point Veneman took a break from political and administrative office to practice with the law firm and lobby group Patton, Boggs & Blow and also served on several boards of directors and advisory groups.  In 1995 Veneman re-entered government, when she was appointed Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, again being the first woman to hold the position. From 1999 to 2001 Veneman was an attorney with Nossaman LLP, where she focused her attention on food, agriculture, environment, technology, and trade related issues. On 20 January 2001 she was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in as Secretary of Agriculture, a position she held until January 20, 2005.  Veneman has received several awards and distinctions throughout her career. In 2009 Veneman was named to the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women list, ranking 46th.  In 2009 she received the Award of Distinction from the University of California Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Veneman is an Honorary Member of Rotary International (2008), received Sesame Workshop's Leadership Award for Children (2006), and a Humanitarian Award from the United Nations Association of New York (2006). In 2004 Veneman was honored with an Honorary Membership with the U.S. State Department's U.S.-Afghan Women's Council and an Honorary Membership with Sigma Alpha Sorority, the national professional agriculture sorority. She was also awarded the Main Street Partnership John Chaffee Award for Distinguished Public Service, the American PVO Partners Award for Service to People in Need, and the Grape & Wine Public Policy Leadership Award. Additional awards include the Richard E. Lyng Award for Public Service (2005), the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy Alumni of the Year Award (2003), the California State Fair's Agriculturalist of the Year Award (2003), and the National 4-H Alumni Recognition Award. In 2002, Veneman received the California Council for International Trade Golden State Award, the Dutch American Heritage Award, Junior Statesman Foundation Statesman of the Year Award and the United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Distinguished Service Award. In 2001 Veneman received the Outstanding Woman in International Trade Award, the UC Davis Outstanding Alumna of the Year Award and the Food Research and Action Center Award. In 1995 she received a Cal Aggie Alumni Citation for Excellence and the Kiwanis Club of Greater Modesto National Farm-City Week Award.  Veneman is currently a board member of Malaria No More, a New York-based nonprofit that was launched at the 2006 White House Summit with the goal of ending all deaths caused by malaria. Veneman is also co-chair of Mothers Day Every Day, along with former U.S. President Bill Clinton's Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. The "campaign was launched by CARE and the White Ribbon Alliance supporting access of basic health care and maternal services for women around the world." Veneman also serves as a board member of the Close Up Foundation, a civic education organization, and has served previously on a number of advisory councils and committees, particularly those involving higher education.  In 2002, Veneman was diagnosed with breast cancer and received successful treatment. Veneman is also a second cousin of Star Wars creator George Lucas.  Within weeks after taking office, Veneman confronted the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Europe, prompting stronger sanitary and phytosanitary measures. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, additional protections were implemented. She also provided strong leadership in protecting public health and animal health during outbreaks of avian influenza and exotic Newcastle disease in poultry, both of which were quickly eradicated. USDA also confronted various food safety recalls, prompting Veneman to take several actions to strengthen USDA's regulatory oversight and protections.  On December 23, 2003, Veneman announced the discovery of a single cow with Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in Washington State. The cow was determined to be of Canadian origin. After taking initial steps in response, one week later, on December 30, 2003, Veneman announced additional protective measures to be put into place. [4] These included a ban on "downer," or nonambulatory cattle, from the human food supply; additional food-safety measures in the processing of beef and related products; and an acceleration of "the development of the technology architecture" for a national system to track and identify livestock. [2]  BSE proved to be a complex issue on the international-trade front. U.S. trading partners made sometimes-conflicting demands on the United States, while public-interest, consumer and farm groups called for differing protection measures and responses.  Japan, the leading U.S. beef-export market, had been demanding 100 percent testing of all cattle for export, a position it has since altered.  Public-interest groups also called for the closing of loopholes in the so-called "animal-feed ban," which prevented the feeding of ruminant products back to ruminants, which had been discovered as a key-pathway for BSE transmission. The feed ban falls under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration. CANNOTANSWER

Question: what did the protection of agriculture and food have to do with Ann Veneman?
Answer: She also provided strong leadership in protecting public health and animal health during outbreaks of avian influenza and exotic Newcastle disease in poultry,