Gale Encyclopedia Of American Law 3Rd Edition Volume 1 P20 doc

Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Farms, Land in Farms, and Livestock Operations, annual.. The Farm Bill also created the National Institute of Food an

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[repealed 1976]) This act encouraged the westward expansion of European Americans

by selling federally owned lands for farming

Another method of sale was land debt, a financial arrangement in which farmers agreed

to pay the federal government a certain amount from their yearly profits in exchange for the land Congress passed subsequent legislation concerning land ownership for farming pur-poses, but federal lands were eventually exhausted, and in 1976 these late-nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century acts became unnec-essary and were repealed

The colonial and pioneer families who practiced farming generally raised a variety of animals and crops, depending on what the soil would yield This seminal arrangement came to

be known as the“family farm.” The family farm community was rich in resources derived from land, not money, and from this unique prosperity grew a lifestyle with a status all its own

Expendable income was not a priority for farm families The values attached to their way of life placed a higher premium on plentiful food, vast land ownership, and a spiritual fulfillment derived from farming Farmwork was difficult, and the farmer was different from the rest of society; it

was against this backdrop that federal and state legislators began to work when addressing the pressing issues that farmers would come to face The years following the Civil War were especially fruitful for farming communities

WORLD WAR Isaw an increase in the value of farm products, and in the Roaring Twenties, robust prices were maintained by a general public capable of buying food and clothing However,

in the months before theSTOCK MARKETcrash of October 1929, the value of farmland and its products began to decrease This was due in part

to high tariffs on manufacturing equipment essential to farming, which allowed U.S manu-facturers to price farming equipment without foreign competition It was also due in part to a new emphasis on mass productivity inspired by the Industrial Revolution The ability of farmers

to increase production on less land led to lower prices and, eventually, fewer family farms The Great Depression of the 1930s eliminated many family farms As the general public became less able to buy such basic farm products

as food and clothing, food prices dropped drastically, and farmers found themselves with-out the profits they needed in order to pay their mortgages Foreclosures became routine Farm

As farm foreclosures

became commonplace

during the Great

Depression, some

farmers resorted to

violence to try to keep

their property This

image shows Iowa

National Guard

members, armed with

rifles, ready to put

down any disturbance

during an auction

in Crawford County

in 1933.

FDR LIBRARY

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families considered foreclosures a breach of the

government’s promise to allow productive farm

families to keep their land, and vast numbers of

farmers organized to withhold food from their

markets in an effort to force product prices

higher A smaller number of farmers resorted to

violence to prevent other farmers from

deliver-ing their goods to market Several foreclosures

were also prevented by force

The unrest of the early 1930s in the Great

Plains states eventually led to widespread state

legislation that limited the rights of banks to

foreclose on farms with undue haste Action was

also taken on the federal level To avoid a

national farmers’ strike planned for May 13,

1933, PresidentFRANKLIN D.ROOSEVELTsigned the

Agricultural Adjustment Act (7 U.S.C.A § 601

et seq.) on May 12 This act was the first in a

series of federal laws that provided

COMPENSA-TION to farmers who voluntarily reduced their

output Parts of the act were declared

unconsti-tutional by the Supreme Court in 1936, in part

because the Court considered agriculture a

matter of local concern Congress and President

Roosevelt continued to press the issue, with the amended Agricultural Adjustment Act of

1938, which contained more federal control of production, benefit payments, loans, insurance, and soil conservation

The TEST CASE for the new Agricultural Adjustment Act was Wickard v Filburn, 317 U.S 111, 63 S Ct 82, 87 L Ed 122 (1942) In Wickard, Ohio farmer Roscoe C Filburn sued Secretary of Agriculture Claude R Wickard over the part of the act concerning wheat acreage allotment Under the act, the U.S DEPARTMENT

OF AGRICULTURE (USDA) had designated 11.1 acres of Filburn’s land for wheat sowing and established a normal wheat yield for this acreage Filburn defied the department’s direc-tive by sowing wheat on more than 11.1 acres and exceeding his yield This constituted farm marketing excess, and Filburn was penalized

$117.11 by the department When Filburn refused to pay the fine, the government issued

a LIEN against his wheat, and the Agriculture Committee denied him a marketing card This card was necessary to protect Filburn’s buyers fromLIABILITYfor the fine, and to protect buyers from the government’s lien on Filburn’s wheat

Filburn sued to invalidate the wheat-acreage-allotment provision, arguing in part that it was beyond the power of the federal government to enforce such farming limitations Even though Filburn did not intend to sell much of the wheat, the Supreme Court reasoned that because all farm product surplus had a substantial effect on interstateCOMMERCE, it was within the power of the U.S Congress to control it This decision affirmed the power of Congress to regulate all things agrarian, and the U.S farmer, for better or worse, was left with a meddlesome lifetime friend

in the federal government

As the United States enjoyed economic prosperity through the 1950s and 1960s, the number of family farms remained relatively stable

Farm families learned to work with the federal government and its dizzying stream of agencies, regulations, and paperwork Nevertheless, the mid-1980s saw another farm crisis Widespread financial difficulty led to the loss of more family farms and prompted further federal action

In response to this crisis, Congress passed

an extensive credit-relief package in 1985, over the PROTEST of President Ronald Reagan’s agriculture secretary, John R Block The various bills in this package provided for additional

Number and Acreage of U.S Farms

Year

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

SOURCE: U.S Department of Agriculture, National

Agricultural Statistics Service, Farms, Land in Farms,

and Livestock Operations, annual.

Total acreage (in millions) Average acreage per farm Number of farms (in thousands)

ILLUSTRATION BY GGS CREATIVE RESOURCES REPRODUCED BY

PERMISSION OF GALE, A PART OF CENGAGE LEARNING.

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federal monies for loan guarantees, reduction of lender interest rates, and loan advancements

This farm crisis was triggered by a combi-nation of natural disasters, market shifts, lower prices, and production improvements Further-more, the onset of corporate farming, which involves mass production of farm products, forced farm families to consistently reckon with the harsh realities of the financial world

Dissatisfaction with federal farm laws and policy led Congress in 1996 to pass the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act, which came to be known as the Freedom to Farm Act (Pub.L 104–127, Apr 4, 1996, 110 Stat 888) The law, which conservatives trumpeted as the means

to end 60 years of federal farm subsidies and to reinvigorate the free market, reduced regulatory burdens on farmers and ended requirements that farmers idle land to qualify for crop subsidies

However, the central part of the law consisted of

“market transition payments”—the USDA paid farmers to compensate them for the possibility that farm subsidies might end in six years This departed from the traditional federal practice whereby support payments were inversely related

to crop prices—the higher the crop prices, the lower the support payments

In 1996 and 1997 the Freedom to Farm Act gave farmers more than three times as much in cash subsidies as they would have received under the previous five-year farm bill Even with these payouts, farm income began to fall in

1998, leading Congress to reverse course and authorize billions of dollars in farm relief By

2002 Congress had abandoned the idea that the federal government should not subsidize farm-ers It passed the Farm Security and Rural

INVESTMENTAct of 2002 (Farm Bill 2002), Pub.L

107–171, May 13, 2002, 116 Stat 134, which set agricultural policy for the next six years It is estimated that the total subsidies paid out over this period will reach $200 billion

While government involvement in farming continues, the face of U.S farming is evolving

Most farmers are now trained in business and keep abreast of farming trends, technological and manufacturing improvements, and the stock market Many family farms have adapted by specializing in the mass production of one or two particular foods or fibers, like corporate farms do

Other farmers have formed what is called a

“cooperative,” a group of farmers dedicated to the most profitable sale of their products By

pooling their resources and producing a variety of goods, cooperative farmers are able to weather low-price periods and postpone sales until a product price reaches a high level

Agriculture has become a powerfulLOBBYING

group in state capitals across the country, and the political issues are myriad The industry itself is split into competing special interests, according

to product Family farms and cooperatives are often at odds, although sometimes they join forces against massive corporate farming Farm-ing interests are frequently opposed by advocates for the environment and food purity The government does not always seem to act in the best interests of farmers, and farmers and their creditors continually struggle for leverage Fed-eral and state regulations seek to provide some predictability for the players in these struggles

Federal Law

According to the Wickard case, the U.S Congress has the power to regulate agricultural production under Article I, Section 8, of the federal Constitution, and Congress has left virtually nothing to chance The numerous programs and laws that promote and regulate farming are overseen by the secretary of agriculture, who represents the USDA in the president’s cabinet The USDA is the government agency that carries out federal agricultural policy, and it is the most important legal entity to the farmer

Usually, some two dozen agencies are housed within the USDA, all charged with carrying out the various services and enforcing the numerous regulations necessary for the efficient, safe production of food and fiber Other administra-tive agencies can affect a farmer’s legal rights, such as theFOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION(FDA), the INTERIOR DEPARTMENT, and the TREASURY DEPARTMENT, but the USDA is the single depart-ment to which every farmer must answer

The 2008 Farm Bill

In April 2008 Congress finally enacted the massive Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of

2008, P.L 110–246, more commonly referred to

as the Farm Bill The entire law incorporated a

$288 billion, five-year agricultural policy bill that essentially continued the 2002 Farm Bill Specific initiatives were aimed at increased Food Stamp benefits, research money for new pest and disease control in crops, and support for the production of cellulosic ethanol (an alter-native energy)

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Other major provisions included the

Aver-age Crop Revenue Election (ACRE), which will

allow farmers to chose between continued

subsidies or revenue-based market oriented

protections; funding for local food programs,

including farmers’ market programs; and funds

for conservation and working land programs

Section 9003 provides for grants of up to 30

percent of costs for developing and building

biorefineries demonstratively capable of

pro-ducing biofuels (all fuels not produced by corn

kernel starch) Section 15321 establishes a new

tax credit for producers of cellulosic biofuels

(produced from wood, grasses, or the

non-edible parts of plants) Section 9010 authorizes

the COMMODITY CREDIT CORPORATION (CCC) to

purchase sugar from U.S producers and sell it to

bioenergy producers Section 9011 creates the

Biomass Crop Assistance Program supporting

the establishment and production of biomass

crops Two other sections, 9009 and 9013, create

rural energy self-sufficiency initiatives to

devel-op community-wide renewable energy systems

The Farm Bill also created the National

Institute of Food and Agriculture for federal

sector agricultural research For fiscal years 2009

to 2012, the bill granted $78 million for organic

agricultural research; $230 million for specialty

crops; and $118 million for biomass research

and development

The Agricultural Adjustment Acts establish

and maintain prices for crops by preventing

extreme fluctuations in their availability These

acts empower the secretary of agriculture to

allot a certain amount of farmland for the

production of a specific crop, and to apportion

the land among the states capable of producing

the crop State agricultural committees then

assign a certain amount of the land to various

counties, and the counties in turn assign the

land to local farms This system guards against

crop surpluses and shortages, and preserves

economic stability by preventing extreme

fluc-tuations in crop prices

The COMMODITY Credit Corporation (CCC)

exists within the USDA to further the goal of

stabilizing food prices and farmers’ incomes

The CCC providesDISASTER RELIEFto farmers, and

it controls prices through an elaborate system of

price support Loans to farmers and

govern-mental buyouts of farm products allow the CCC

to maintain reasonable price levels The

secre-tary of the CCC is also authorized to issue

subsidies, or governmental grants, to farmers as another means of controlling prices by main-taining farmers’ incomes By encouraging or discouraging the production of a particular food

or fiber through financial reward, subsidies promote price stability in the markets

Several federal programs help serve the same purpose of price stability The secretary of agriculture may set national quotas for the production of a certain farm product Set-aside conditions, also established by the secretary of agriculture, require farmers to withhold pro-duction on a certain amount of cropland during

a specified year Diversion payments are made to farmers who agree to divert a percentage of their cropland to conservation uses, and the Payment in Kind Program allows farmers to divert farmland from production of a certain commodity in exchange for a number of bushels

of the commodity normally produced on the diverted land FederalCROP INSURANCE,

emergen-cy programs, andINDEMNITYpayment programs protect farmers against unforeseen production shortfalls The FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION, established by Congress as an independent agency in the EXECUTIVE BRANCH of government, provides funds for farmers who are unable to purchase feed for livestock or seed for crops

Also in place are federal programs and regulations that provide for the coordination of farm cooperatives, standardization of marketing practices, quality and health inspections, the promotion of market expansion, the reporting

of farm statistics, and the administration of soil conservation efforts For example, the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act (16 U.S.C.A §§ 590 et seq [1936]) directs the secretary of agriculture to help farmers and ranchers acquire the knowledge and skill to preserve the quality of their soil The federal Food Stamp Program helps to support domestic food consumption and economic stability for consumers and farmers alike by subsidizing the food purchases of people with low incomes

Under Title VII of the United States Code, the secretary of agriculture is charged with coordinating educational outreach services The Morrill Act (7 U.S.C.A §§ 301–05, 307, 308), passed by Congress in 1863, granted public land

to institutions of higher education for the purpose of teaching agriculture In 1887 the

HATCH ACT (7 U.S.C.A § 361a et seq.) created agricultural experiment stations for colleges of

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agriculture, and in 1914 the Smith-Lever Act (7 U.S.C.A § 341 et seq.) created the Extension Service, which allowed agriculture colleges to educate farmers not enrolled in school

In the Extension Service, agents are hired by

an agriculture college to help farmers address a variety of farming issues, and to promote progress in farming by providing farmers with information on technological advances Many farm families have been helped by the land-grant programs, but some critics have argued that this college system too often emphasizes increased productivity and frenzied technological advance-ment at the exclusion of small-scale farm operations In the mid-1990s the Extension Service began to branch out The Minnesota Extension Service, for example, began to address such issues as teen drug abuse and child neglect

This use of agricultural monies for social services has disappointed some and pleased others

One high-profile controversy involves the Bovine Somatatropin (BST) bovine growth hormone The BST hormone increases the milk output of dairy cows The Milk Labeling Act bills passed by Congress in April 1993 regulate the use of the drug by requiring the secretary of agriculture to conduct a study of its economic effect on the dairy industry and on the federal price support program for milk The act also requires the producers of the milk from cows treated with BST to keep records on its manu-facture and sale Proponents of the drug praise its production benefits, but opponents argue that increasing productivity is less important than ensuring food purity

HOMESTEAD protection is another form of federal relief, which helps keep farms out of

FORECLOSURE To qualify for homestead protec-tion, farmers must show that they have received a gross farm income that is comparable to that of other local farmers, and that at least 60 percent of their income has come from farming A 1993 case challenged the definition of this type of relief

Schmidt v Espy, 9 F.3d 1352 (8th Cir 1993) was a suit brought by the Schmidt family to stop the FmHA from calling in the Schmidts’ farm loan

The USDA had ruled that because the Schmidts’

farm had suffered net losses, it could not qualify for homestead protection The Schmidts took their case to the U.S district court, which affirmed the USDA’s decision

The Eighth CIRCUIT COURT of Appeals re-versed the decision According to the appeals

court, the statutory definition of income for purposes of homestead protection is GROSS INCOME, not gross profits The court reasoned that because homestead protection is normally sought by financially distressed farmers, limit-ing the protection to profitable farmers would run contrary to the purpose of homestead protection

State Law

TheTENTH AMENDMENTgrants states the right to pass laws that promote the general safety and well-being of the public Because courts have found that agricultural production and con-sumption directly affect public health and safety, states are free to enact their own agricultural laws, provided those laws do not conflict with federal laws and regulations

Many state laws provide for financial assis-tance to farmers By issuing loans or providing emergency aid, states are able to ensure the survival of family farms and continued agricul-tural production The states also have the power

to impose agricultural liens, which are claims upon crops for unpaid debts If a farmer is unable

to make timely payments on loans for services or supplies, the state may sue the farmer to gain a security interest in the farmer’s crops States also enact laws to supervise the inspection, grading, sale, and storage of grain, fertilizer, and seed Municipalities can also set regulations that ostensibly control agricultural production The subject of wetlands, for example, is within the jurisdiction of local governing bodies In Ruotolo

v Madison Inland Wetlands Agency, No CV 93-0433106, 1993 WL 544699 (Conn.Super., Dec 23, 1993), Michael Ruotolo, a farmer in Madison, Connecticut, challenged a MUNICIPAL

regulation that prevented him from filling in wetlands located on his property Ruotolo wanted to plant nursery stock on the area after moving earth to raise the ground level, but the Madison Wetlands Regulation precluded the filling in of any wetlands According to a state statute, however, farming was permitted on some wetlands of less than three acres

Ruotolo asserted a right to farm, and argued that because the state law and the local regulation were in conflict, the state law should prevail However, in previous proceedings between Ruotolo and the Madison Inland Wetlands Agency, the agency had found that the wetlands

on Ruotolo’s property had “continual flow,”

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and were therefore subject to more protection

than standing-water wetlands Because the state

statute prevented even farmers with less than

three acres from filling in wetlands with

continual flow, Ruotolo was prevented from

farming the wetlands on his own property

FURTHER READINGS

Barnes, Richard L 1993 “The U.C.C.’s Insidious Preference

for Agronomy over Ecology in Farm Lending

Deci-sions ” University of Colorado Law Review 64.

Commodity Credit Corporation Available online at www.

fsa.usda.gov/ccc/default.htm (accessed May 29, 2003).

Daniels, Tom, and Deborah Bowers 1997 Holding Our

Ground: Protecting America’s Farms and Farmland.

Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Department of Agriculture 2009 “Food, Conservation, and

Energy Act of 2008 ” Available online at http://www.

usda.gov/wps/portals; website home page: http://www.

usda.gov/ (accessed September 10, 2009)

Farm Credit Administration Available online at www.fca.

gov (accessed May 29, 2003).

Gardner, Bruce L 2002 American Agriculture in the

Twentieth Century: How It Flourished and What It Cost.

Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ Press.

Hamilton, Neil D 1993 “Feeding Our Future: Six

Philosophical Issues Shaping Agricultural Law ”

Nebraska Law Review 72.

——— 1990 “The Study of Agricultural Law in the United

States: Education, Organization, and Practice ” Arkansas

Law Review 43.

Kimbrell, Andrew 2002 Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of

Industrial Agriculture Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Looney, J W 1994 Agricultural Law: Principles and Cases.

2d ed New York: McGraw-Hill.

Meyer, Keith G., et al 1985 Agricultural Law: Cases and

Materials St Paul, Minn.: West.

Prim, Richard 1993 “Saving the Family Farm: Is Minnesota’s

Anti –Corporate Farm Statute the Answer?” Hamline

Journal of Public Law and Policy 14.

Sumner, Daniel A., ed 1995 Agricultural Policy Reform in

the United States Washington, D.C.: AEI Press.

CROSS REFERENCES

Agriculture Department; Agriculture Subsidies;

Environ-mental Law; Land-Use Control; Zoning.

AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT

The U.S.DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE(USDA) is

an executive, cabinet-level department in the

federal government It is directed by the secretary

of agriculture, who reports to thePRESIDENT OF THE

UNITED STATES The USDA’s primary concern is the

nation’s agriculture industry, and the

depart-ment addresses this concern through numerous

economic, regulatory, environmental, and

scien-tific programs The USDA provides financial aid

to farmers through loans, grants, and a system of

price supports The USDA’s international efforts

promote domestically grown products abroad

The department regulates the quality and output

of the grain, meat, and poultry industries

Through various conservation programs, the department helps protect soil, water, forests, and other natural resources The USDA also administers the federal Food Stamp Program, one of theWELFAREsystem’s largest services

The USDA has a long history As early as 1838, farmers had urged Congress to create a federal

AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT, but it took more than 20 years before the idea gained widespread support

On May 15, 1862, President ABRAHAM LINCOLN

signed the Department of Agriculture Organic Act (12 Stat 387, now codified at 7 U.S.C.A> § 2201), which created the department The creation of the USDA coincided with several other major events, including the middle of the Civil War Within days

of signing the act that created the USDA, Lincoln also signed theHOMESTEAD ACT OF1862, which was vital in the development of family farms in the western United States

The USDA was administered by a COMMIS-SIONERof agriculture until 1889 (25 Stat 659) In

1889, Congress enlarged the department’s powers and duties (7 U.S.C.A §§ 2202, 2208)

It made the USDA the eighth executive depart-ment in the federal governdepart-ment, and the commissioner became the secretary of agricul-ture Federal lawmakers have tinkered with the department ever since Notably, programs pro-viding economic aid to farmers were established during the Great Depression, and these programs have since become a firmly entrenched part of federal law Important contemporary reforms have included federal welfare services such as the Food Stamp Program, administered through the Food and Nutrition Service since the 1970s, and the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C.A §§ 1421 note et seq.), enacted to maintain the income of farmers

Several federal statutes have established the department’s central role in administering subsidy programs These statues include: the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (Freedom to Farm Act) (Pub L No

104–127, Apr 4, 1996, 110 Stat 888), the Farm Security and RuralINVESTMENTAct of 2002 (2002 Farm Bill) (Pub L No 107–171, May 13, 2002,

116 Stat 134), and the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill) (Pub L No

110–246, 122 Stat 1651)

The secretary of agriculture presides over an elaborate BUREAUCRACY The deputy secretary

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runs day-to-day operations, serving as the secretary’s principal adviser Reporting to the secretary and deputy secretary are six officers:

chief financial officer, general counsel, inspector general, executive of operations, director of communications, and chief information officer

These officers and their staffs coordinate a number of operations, including: the USDA’s personnel management program; equal oppor-tunity andCIVIL RIGHTSactivities; safety and health activities; management improvement programs;

media relations; accounting, fiscal, and financial activities; automated data processing administra-tion; procurement andCONTRACTS; and manage-ment of real andPERSONAL PROPERTY

Various branches of the USDA handle the department’s legal affairs The judicial officer, rather than the secretary, serves as the final

deciding officer, in regulatory proceedings and appeals of aQUASI-JUDICIALnature where a hearing

is required by law Two quasi-judicial agencies, the Office of Administrative Law Judges and the Board of Contract Appeals, adjudicate cases and decide contract disputes Additional input to the secretary comes from the general counsel, who

is both the principal legal adviser and the chief law officer of the department All audits and investigations are conducted by the Office of the Inspector General, established by the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C.A §§ 2 et seq.) The Office of Congressional Relations informs Congress of administrative policy

Also reporting to the secretary and deputy secretary are seven under secretaries who oversee major divisions These divisions include Rural Development; Marketing and Regulatory

Department of Agriculture

Secretary

Chief Information

Officer

Chief Financial Officer

Inspector General

Executive Operations

Director of Communications

General Counsel

Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Assistant Secretary

for Administration

Deputy Secretary

Forest Service

Natural Resources

Conservation

Service

Under Secretary

for Natural

Resources

and Environment

Farm Service Agency Foreign Agricultural Service Risk Management Agency

Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services

Rural Utilities Service Rural Housing Service Rural Business Cooperative Service

Under Secretary for Rural Development

Food and Nutrition Service Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion

Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Under Secretary for Food Safety

Agricultural Research Service Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service Economic Research Service National Agricultural Library National Agricultural Statistics Service

Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics

Agricultural Marketing Service Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration

Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs

ILLUSTRATION BY GGS

CREATIVE RESOURCES.

REPRODUCED BY

PERMISSION OF GALE,

A PART OF CENGAGE

LEARNING.

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Programs; Food, Nutrition, and Consumer

Services; Food Safety; Farm and Foreign

Agricul-ture Service; Natural Resources and

Environ-ment; and Research, Education, and Economics

The USDA also runs a graduate school

Rural Development

The Rural Development division includes three

programs that provide financial help to farmers

and rural communities The Rural

Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) provides and

guar-antees loans to public entities and private

parties who cannot obtain credit from other

sources Loans are made to help finance

industry and business and to provide jobs in

rural areas The Rural Housing Service (RHS)

provides affordable rental housing, home

own-ership opportunities, and essential community

facilities It also provides loans to buy, operate,

and improve farms, and guarantees loans from

commercial lenders The Rural Utilities Service

(RUS) is a credit agency that helps rural electric

and telephone utilities obtain financing

As part of the farm bills passed in 2002 and

2008, the Rural Development division has

issued grants and loans to promote energy

efficiency and use of renewable energy Those

eligible to receive these loans include individual

farms as well as rural businesses Many of these

loans are awarded for the production of

energy-efficient grain dryers, but some farms and

businesses receive funds for other purposes,

such as replacement of farming equipment

Marketing and Regulatory Programs

The Marketing and Regulatory Programs division

oversees three major programs The Agricultural

Marketing Service (AMS) administers

standardi-zation, grading, inspection, market news,

market-ing orders, research, promotion, and regulatory

programs The Animal and Plant Health

Inspec-tion Service conducts programs pertaining to

quarantine, environmental protection, the

hu-mane treatment of animals, and the reduction of

crop and livestock losses The Grain Inspection,

Packers, and Stockyards Administration regulates

grain, meat, and poultry industries, in addition to

other commodities It also enforces antitrust laws

to ensure fair competition in the meat industry

Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services

The Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services

division includes two social welfare programs

and one consumer information service The

Food and Nutrition Service administers federal assistance programs to needy people, including the Food Stamp Program, special nutrition programs, and supplemental food programs

The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) conducts research to improve profes-sional and public understanding of diets and eating, and develops the national Dietary Guide-lines for Americans The CNPP also focuses on consumer advocacy by helping USDA policy makers, representing the department before Congress, monitoring USDA programs, and conducting consumer outreach

Food Safety

The Food Safety division administers the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) Established

in 1981, the FSIS conducts federal meat and poultry inspections on cattle, swine, goats, sheep, lambs, horses, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and guineas used for human food It also inspects the production of egg products The service monitors meat and poultry products in storage, distribution, and retail channels

In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the USDA emphasized the need to protect the nation’s food supply The department’s primary focus was on bioterrorist threats and working to establish an infrastructure that provides better food safety For example, additional Import Surveillance Liaison (ISL) inspectors were hired to focus on specific points

of entry across the United States, and to re-inspect meats and poultry imported from other countries The USDA also increased resources at universities and laboratories where research into biological agents and food safety analysis were taking place Such initiatives ultimately benefit the overall integrity of the nation’s food supply

In 2005 the USDA and several other federal agencies announced the formation of the Strate-gic Partnership Program Agroterrorism (SPPA) Initiative This program requires collaboration between the federal government, the states, and private industry to ensure that the nation’s food supply would be protected in the event of a terrorist attack Other federal agencies involved

in this initiative include the FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT, and theFEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service

The Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service division administers three programs that help

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maintain a stable market for farm commodities, thus ensuring a steady income for farmers The Farm Service Agency (FSA) administers pro-grams of the COMMODITY CREDIT CORPORATION

(CCC) These programs include so-called price supports: farmers who agree to limit their production of specially designated crops can sell them to the CCC or borrow money at support prices The FSA also furnishes emer-gency financial aid to farmers, operates a grain reserve program, provides milk producers refunds of the reduction in the price received for milk during a calendar year, and provides payments to dairy farmers if their milk is removed from the market because of contami-nation It has responsibility for plans relating to food production and conservation in prepara-tion for a naprepara-tional security emergency, and provides incentives for preserving and protect-ing agricultural resources The Risk Manage-ment Agency (RMA) providesCROP INSURANCEto farmers to protect them against unexpected production losses caused by natural causes

The division also has an international focus

The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) has primary responsibility for the USDA’s overseas market information, access, and development programs It maintains a worldwide agricultural intelligence and reporting system, and also administers the USDA’s export assistance and foreign food assistance programs The Office of International Cooperation and Development (OICD) helps other USDA agencies and U.S

universities enhance U.S agricultural competi-tiveness globally Utilizing the technical exper-tise of the U.S agricultural community, it seeks

to increase income and food availability in developing nations

Natural Resources and Environment

Two programs in the Natural Resources and Environment division address environmental resources The Forest Service oversees the national forests It manages 155 national forests,

20 national grasslands, and eight land-utilization projects on more than 191 million acres in

44 states, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico It provides national leadership as well as financial and technical assistance to owners and opera-tors of nonfederal forestland, processors of forest products, and urban forestry interests

The Natural Resources Conservation Service has responsibility for developing and carrying out

a national soil and water conservation program

in cooperation with landowners, developers, communities, and federal, state, and local agencies It also assists in agriculturalPOLLUTION

control, environmental improvement, and rural community development

Research, Education, and Economics

The Research, Education, and Economics divi-sion administers four major programs The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) conducts studies in the United States and overseas to improve farming The Cooperative State Re-search, Education, and Extension Service administers acts of Congress that authorize federal appropriations for agricultural research carried out by the State Agricultural Experiment Stations The Extension Service is the educa-tional agency of the USDA The Naeduca-tional Agricultural Statistics Service provides informa-tion services to everyone from research scien-tists to the general public, and maintains the electronic Agricultural Online Access (AGRI-COLA) database available over theINTERNETand

on compact disc It prepares estimates and reports on production, supply, price, and other economic information The Economic Research Service (ERS) analyzes economic and other social science data in order to improve agricul-tural performance and rural living It makes analyses of recommendations by USDA agen-cies, task forces, and study groups to be used as

a basis for short-term agricultural policy One of the units within the ARS is the National Agricultural Library, which is one of four national libraries in the United States The library houses one of the largest collections of agricultural information in the world It has two locations: Washington, D.C and Beltsville, Maryland The library helps to fund the National Agricultural Law Center based at the University

of Arkansas School of Law This center studies a wide range of legal issues affecting agriculture

USDA Graduate School

The Graduate School, U.S Department of Agriculture, is a continuing education school offering career-related training to adults Not directly funded by Congress or the USDA, it is self-supporting, with a mostly part-time faculty drawn from government and industry The graduate school is administered by a director and governed by a general administration board appointed by the secretary of agriculture The school was established on September 2, 1921,

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pursuant to the act of May 15, 1862 (7 U.S.C.A.

§ 2201);JOINT RESOLUTIONof April 12, 1892 (27

Stat 395); and the Deficiencies APPROPRIATION

Act of March 3, 1901 (20 U.S.C.A § 91)

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