U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack counted progress toward energy independence among the Obama administration’s first 100 days accomplishments.

During a meeting in Washington DC with agricultural journalists this week, Vilsack said implementing the 2008 Farm Bill was his number one priority when he took the office of secretary. “The president gave me an instruction when he hired me to continue to promote renewable energy and biofuels, and for that reason we’ve been very focused on making sure that the energy title of the Farm Bill was accelerated in terms of rule making and in terms of making resources available to farmers and rural communities across the country,” said Vilsack.

Together with the Department of Energy, Vilsack said USDA has made $25 million available for research and development of technologies and processes to produce biofuels, bioenergy, and high-value biobased products.