Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced a reorganization of USDA Thursday during an event in Cincinnati, Ohio. Perdue says he is creating an Undersecretary for Trade. The 2014 farm bill called for splitting the position of Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Ag Services into two positions. However, that never happened during the Obama administration.

Perdue says the Undersecretary for Trade will oversee the Foreign Agriculture service and will be an advocate for U.S. exports.

At the same time the other Undersecretary will head up the Farm Service Agency and Risk Management Agency functions and can better focus on administering farm programs.

This is the first reshuffling of USDA since 1994. Perdue is eliminating the Undersecretary of Rural Development, but says he is elevating Rural Development to answer directly to him.

Groups such as the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition oppose the move and say demoting Rural Development to an office under the Secretary will diminish the importance of those programs.