Who is Earl from The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and what is their importance?

Earl "Rusty" Butz was the secretary of agriculture under President Nixon. Butz and others coordinated a huge sale of corn to the Russians in 1972, which created a grain shortage in the US which, combined with bad weather, spiked prices through the roof. By the following year, those high prices had spread throughout the food chain, causing grocery prices to also skyrocket. In an effort to change the food system, Butz began seeking ways to encourage overproduction on the part of the farmers, and began dismantling the New Deal grain system, putting into place instead direct payments to farmers that would cover the difference between the market price and the target price. The end result was a huge surplus of corn which, Pollan believes, is the root of the problem with the American food system.