Agriculture Secretary-nominee Tom Vilsack told a Senate panel Wednesday that he already has begun coordinating efforts within the incoming Obama administration to combat child hunger.

Vilsack testified that he has met with Tom Daschle, the nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, to align their agendas on nutrition.

“It’s going to be important for us to promote fresh fruits and vegetables as part of our children’s diets. . .that means supporting those who supply those products” and making it easier for consumers to buy locally grown products, Vilsack said.

Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry panel Chairman Tom Harkin , who like Vilsack is from Iowa, said reauthorization of a law governing school lunches and other child nutrition programs “is really the only thing that we have to do this year.”

President-elect Obama vowed as a goal to end childhood hunger by 2015.

The panel was poised to endorse Vilsack’s nomination, placing him on the fast track for full Senate approval as early as Jan. 20, right after Obama is inaugurated.

“I just couldn’t be more proud to see you sitting there. I don’t think President-elect [Barack] Obama could have picked a better person for this position,” Harkin said.

Vilsack — acclaimed for his record on nutrition, renewable fuel production and rural development — was asked how he plans to juggle those initiatives, while preserving farmer subsidies and keeping the marketplace competitive with foreign agriculture.

He pledged to administer farm supports, conservation programs and energy initiatives in accordance with the 2008 farm law, though admitted he has a lot to learn about the complex commodity payment provisions.

“I’m not going to tell you today that there might not be a disagreement from time to time, but if there is I will be available to talk,” he said. “I honestly don’t know as much as I need to know or as much as you know about this issue,” he told the committee’s ranking Republican, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, when asked to comment on controversial subsidy limit rules the department published last month.

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