Ted McKinney

Ted McKinney is an American government official who served as under secretary of agriculture for trade and foreign agricultural affairs. Prior to assuming this position, McKinney served as director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture from 2014 to 2017. In September 2021, Ted McKinney was named chief executive officer of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

Early life and education McKinney grew up on a family farm in Tipton, Indiana. He was active in 4-H and the National FFA Organization. In 1981, he received a B.A. in agricultural economics from Purdue University. At Purdue, McKinney received the G.A. Ross Award as the outstanding senior male graduate. In 2002, he was named a Purdue Agriculture Distinguished Alumnus, and in 2004, he received an honorary American FFA Degree.

At his confirmation hearing, McKinney said he anticipated "investing significant time in many foreign countries...building trust, opening doors for farmers and processors, removing trade barriers, and otherwise being what I hope to be known as: a high-trust and high-delivery person of our ag portfolio." Secretary Sonny Perdue said McKinney would "wake up every morning seeking to sell more American agricultural products in foreign markets."

In November 2017, McKinney traveled to India on his first international trade mission. The 50-person trade delegation, which sought to advance the trade policy relationship between the U.S. and India, held over 465 business to business meetings.

In September 2019, during a speech to the National Farmers Union, when talking about Trump's trade war with China, McKinney called General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping a "communist zealot" and "very much in the spirit of Mao Zedong". McKinney also criticized Chinese government's crackdown on church attendance, quoting the report by the diplomatic representatives of the Department's Foreign Agricultural Service in China.