United States-USDA pass the buck on recent Salmonella health scare with allegations to cover up their own incompetence.

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In the four decades that Tommy Irvin has been Georgia’s agriculture commissioner, he has ceaselessly promoted crops and industries that his department oversees. At county fairs in rural Georgia and at trade shows in China, Cuba and Europe, he has hawked everything from peanuts to peaches to spring water.

When Irvin took office in 1969, pushing Georgia products was a huge part of his job — and he did it well. Now 79 and ill with Parkinson’s, Irvin remains an affable, ardent salesman for all things FROM Georgia.

But the job of state Ag chief isn’t what it was. Nowadays, consumer safety and inspections have become key — as brought home by the recent deadly salmonella outbreak traced to a South Georgia peanut plant that Irvin’s department was responsible for inspecting.

In light of the scandal, questions have emerged about Irvin’s fitness as a regulator. Some critics have charged that the powerful Irvin — a fixture in rural Georgia and the nation’s longest-serving agriculture chief — is too close to the businesses he is supposed to police.

Financial disclosure records show Irvin has invested millions in businesses closely related to those he, as agriculture commissioner, regulates:

• He owns millions in tobacco company stocks — and regulates Georgia tobacco production, storehouses and dealers.

• He owns stocks in various oil businesses — and his department licenses all the state’s gas pumps.

• He has holdings in a farm fertilizer company — and regulates the quality of fertilizer.

• He owns stock in grocery stores — and regulates them.

• Irvin also co-owns two property companies with a man who runs a major food distribution company that Irvin’s department regulates. That company has its headquarters at the State Farmers Market in Forest Park, which Irvin’s department operates.

Interviewed in a Capitol hallway recently, Irvin said he has worked to keep all products safe. Irvin said he never let his business holdings influence his judgment as commissioner, and stressed his financial holdings are legal under state ethics law. He files all required reports to the State Ethics Commission, Irvin said.

"I don’t know of a single decision I have made in all the years that I have been in office that had any impact on my holdings," he said.

Under state law, Irvin is allowed to invest in any business for any amount as long as he discloses the holdings on his annual financial disclosure report.

Other critics have questioned the millions in campaign donations Irvin collected from within the industry over the years.

In 2006, his most recent race, Irvin raised $2.3 million to defeat Republican challenger Gary Black. In the last filing of that year, Irvin listed 83 donors in the closing months of the campaign that gave him $101 or more. At least 50 of those donors were people working for businesses that Irvin’s department regulates or the political action committees of industries it regulates. One $1,000 donation came from an employee of his department.

Under Georgia law, it would be illegal for Irvin to take contributions from companies his department regulates, but he can take money from political action committees representing such industries or from people who work for companies he regulates.

Georgia voters haven’t seemed to mind. They have returned Irvin to office with wide margins of victory every election over the past four decades. He said he would retire when his current term ends after the 2010 election.

Irvin planned to finish out his long career doing things the way he had roughly done them all along.

Then came the salmonella crisis, which has been linked to at least nine deaths, sickened more than 600 and made Americans afraid of one of Georgia’s most iconic crops. The crisis, traced to a Blakely peanut processing plant inspected and sanctioned by Irvin’s department, has politicians, farmers and others questioning Irvin’s relationship with businesses his department is supposed to watch.

"If you regulate an industry you should not be able to invest in it because you can affect the profits. It’s too close," said Randy Evans, the state Republican Party’s senior legal counsel, who has publicly called for Irvin’s resignation.

Another critic, R. Bayne Stone, the mayor of Hazelhurst who ran against Irvin and lost in 1978, said "the department is just as antiquated as it can be. It’s sad really."

Even some farmers, for decades Irvin’s loyal base, have voiced concerns recently. Don Register, 70, who has farmed peanuts near Tifton since 1970, said under Irvin "the department has done a pretty good job of promotion, but I don’t know about inspection."

Register said the peanut crisis "has really ruined us." He said Irvin’s tenure needs to be examined, especially lapses on inspections.

At the Capitol, many are talking about Irvin these days, but few will be quoted — testament both to his historic political power and deference to his age and illness. Rep. Terry England (R-Auburn), vice chairman of the House Agriculture & Consumer Affairs committee, a supporter of Irvin’s opponent in 2006, and a farmer, said: "When a man devotes his entire career to being an ardent supporter of my livelihood, it’s hard to say anything that would be negative."

Asked if Gov. Sonny Perdue supported Irvin, spokesman Bert Brantley said, "We have been working closely with the Department of Agriculture to try and understand what happened."

Irvin’s tenure began 40 years ago last month, when Gov. Lester Maddox tapped Irvin, who owned a timber business, to be commissioner. At the swearing-in, Irvin was given a 10-gallon hat with the logo "Georgia’s No. 1 farmer." After administering the oath, Maddox declared to Irvin, "You’re in, friend."

Over the next four decades, the Democrat from Habersham County turned his department into a powerful bureaucracy that touches every Georgian: regulating and monitoring grocery stores, food warehouses, bottling plants, food and meat processing plants, state farmers markets, pest control, garden centers, fertilizer and other goods and services.

Today Irvin heads a department of about 700 employees. The lanky, 6-foot-5-inch Irvin, often sporting cowboy boots, is a common sight at the Capitol.

Irvin has grown wealthy during his long career in office. His web of finances including stocks, property and businesses were worth at last public estimate about $16.1 million.

An examination of Irvin’s finances show connections between side businesses, investments and the oil, agriculture, food processing and food production industries.

In 2006, Irvin ran for re-election and was required to detail and estimate the value of his 2005 financial holdings. He listed direct ownership interests in two side businesses: Irvin, Irvin, Irvin, Hogan & Sutherland, a property holding company in Toccoa, and SeaKing, a property holding company based in Forest Park.

James "Gene" E. Sutherland Sr., 73, is Irvin’s longtime campaign chairman and owner of Sutherland Foods, a produce distribution company that Irvin regulates. It is one of the largest tenants of the State Farmers Market in Forest Park, which is run by the Agriculture Department. Sutherland said he has not received favorable treatment.

"He probably would be tougher on me than on folks he doesn’t know so well," he said.

In an interview, Irvin smiled and folded his arms when asked about how he became so wealthy.. He said a lot of land holdings, which he purchased decades ago, skyrocketed in value.

"I had some good holdings," he said.

Jaydee Hanson, policy analyst for the Center for Food Safet