The story
Founded by Abraham Lincoln and Henry Leavitt Ellsworth on May 15, 1862.1
History
The standard history is Gladys L. Baker, ed., Century of Service: The first 100 years of the United States Department of Agriculture (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1963).
Origins in the Patent Office
Early in its history, the American economy was largely agrarian. Officials in the federal government had long sought new and improved varieties of seeds, plants and animals for import into the United States. In 1829, by request of James Smithson out of a desire to further promulgate and diffuse scientific knowledge amongst the American people, the Smithsonian Institution was established, though it did not incorporate agriculture. In 1837, Henry Leavitt Ellsworth became Commissioner of Patents in the Department of State. He began collecting and distributing new varieties of seeds and plants through members of the Congress and local agricultural societies. In 1839, Congress established the Agricultural Division within the Patent Office and allotted $1,000 for "the collection of agricultural statistics and other agricultural purposes." Ellsworth's interest in aiding agriculture was evident in his annual reports that called for a public depository to preserve and distribute the various new seeds and plants, a clerk to collect agricultural statistics, the preparation of statewide reports about crops in different regions, and the application of chemistry to agriculture. Ellsworth was called the "Father of the Department of Agriculture".
In 1849, the Patent Office was transferred to the newly created Department of the Interior. In the ensuing years, agitation for a separate bureau within the department or a separate department devoted to agriculture kept recurring.
Formation
On May 15, 1862, Abraham Lincoln established the independent Department of Agriculture through the Morrill Act to be headed by a commissioner without Cabinet status. Staffed by only eight employees, the department was charged with conducting research and development related to "agriculture, rural development, aquaculture and human nutrition in the most general and comprehensive sense of those terms". Agriculturalist Isaac Newton was appointed to be the first commissioner. Lincoln called it the "people's department", since over half of the nation, at the time, was directly or indirectly involved in agriculture or agribusiness.
In 1868, the department moved into the new Department of Agriculture Building in Washington, designed by famed D.C. architect Adolf Cluss. Located on the National Mall between 12th Street and 14th SW, the department had offices for its staff and the entire width of the Mall up to B Street NW to plant and experiment with plants.
In the 1880s, varied advocacy groups were lobbying for Cabinet representation. Business interests sought a Department of Commerce and Industry, and farmers tried to raise the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet rank. In 1887, the House of Representatives and Senate passed separate bills giving Cabinet status to the Department of Agriculture and Labor, but the bill was defeated in conference committee after farm interests objected to the addition of labor. Finally, in 1889 the Department of Agriculture was given cabinet-level status.
In 1887, the Hatch Act provided for the federal funding of agricultural experiment stations in each state. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 then funded cooperative extension services in each state to teach agriculture, home economics, and other subjects to the public. With these and similar provisions, the USDA reached out to every county of every state.
From 1913 to 1949, the USDA published 78 issues of the Journal of Agricultural Research.
Read the full text
New Deal era
By the year 1933, the department was well established in Washington and very well known in rural America. In the agricultural field the picture was different. Statisticians created a comprehensive data-gathering arm in the Division of Crop and Livestock Estimates. Secretary Henry Wallace, a statistician, further strengthened the expertise by introducing sampling techniques. Professional economists ran a strong Bureau of Agricultural Economics. Most important was the agricultural experiment station system, a network of state partners in the land-grant colleges, which in turn operated a large field service in direct contact with farmers in practically every rural county. The department worked smoothly with a nationwide, well-organized pressure group, the American Farm Bureau Federation. It represented the largest commercial growers before Congress.
As late as the Great Depression, farm work occupied a fourth of Americans. Indeed, many young people who moved to the cities in the prosperous 1920s returned to the family farm after the depression caused unemployment after 1929. The USDA helped ensure that food continued to be produced and distributed to those who needed it, assisted with loans for small landowners, and provided technical advice. Its Bureau of Home Economics, established in 1923, published shopping advice and recipes to stretch family budgets and make food go farther. In the late 1940s, the Pollinating Insect Research unit was established as a part of the alfalfa seed production unit to study bees and other pollinators to improve pollination management.
Post-New Deal era
By the time of the Nixon Administration, secretary Earl Butz pursued policies more favorable to agribusiness and encouraged the cultivation of commodity crops. This coincided with a global food shortage which saw American crop prices rise considerably. Butz would later resign during the Ford administration on October 4, 1976. John A. Knebel would fill his position until the end of Ford's presidency.
The Jimmy Carter administration would see Robert Bergland assuming the role of secretary. He faced difficulties on account of prices lowering from their mid-70s peak, and lobbying from farm groups suich as the American Agriculture Movement for higher subsidies. Protestors would occupy Bergland's office due to these demands. These issues would be exacerbated on account of 1980's grain embargo against the Soviet Union.
The 1980s farm crisis would continue into the Reagan administration, and accelerate the acquisition of smallholdings by agribusiness firms.
Modern times
On August 27, 2018, the USDA announced it would be providing U.S. farmers with a farm aid package totaling $4.7 billion in direct payments to American farmers.
On February 7, 2022, the USDA announced the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, a $1 billion program that will test and verify the benefits of climate-friendly agricultural practices.
In October 2022, the USDA announced a $1.3 billion debt relief program for about 36,000 farmers who had fallen behind on loan payments or facing foreclosures. The provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 set aside $3.1 billion to help such farmers with high-risk operations caused by USDA-backed loans.
In February 2025, the Trump administration fired multiple probationary employees in the USDA, including multiple researchers in the post-doctoral research fellowship in the Agricultural Research Service, a division dedicated to using science to protect the nation's food supply. The USDA said in a statement on February 14, 2025, that it is implementing "an aggressive plan to optimize its workforce by eliminating positions that are no longer necessary." However, a few days later they made another statement stating they had fired people in "several positions supporting" highly pathogenic avian influenza, and was "working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind" the termination letters given to these people.
In March 2025, the USDA cut two federal programs that provided about $1 billion in funding to schools and food banks to buy food directly from local farms, ranchers and producers.
On January 9, 2026, secretary Brooke Rollins announced that effective immediately, the USDA is suspending financial awards to the state of Minnesota and city of Minneapolis, in response to "widespread and systemic fraud associated with federal benefit programs".
Background
On February 16, 1994, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12898, "Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations." Executive Order 12898 requires that achieving EJ must be part of each federal agency's mission. Under Executive Order 12898 federal agencies must:
enforce all health and environmental statutes in areas with minority and low-income populations;
ensure public participation;
improve research and data collection relating to the health and environment of minority and low-income populations; and
identify differential patterns of consumption of natural resources among minority and low-income populations.
The Executive Order also created an Interagency Working Group (IWG) consisting of 11 heads of departments and agencies.
2012 Environmental Justice Strategy
On February 7, 2012, the USDA released a final Environmental Justice Strategic Plan identifying new and updated goals and performance measures beyond what USDA identified in a 1995 EJ strategy that was adopted in response to E.O. 12898. Generally, USDA believes its existing technical and financial assistance programs provide solutions to environmental inequity, such as its initiatives on education, food deserts, and economic development in impacted communities.
Natural Resources and Environment Under Secretary Harris Sherman is the political appointee generally responsible for USDA's EJ strategy, with Patrick Holmes, a senior staffer to the Under Secretary, playing a coordinating role. USDA has no staff dedicated solely to EJ.
From Wikipedia’s article on United States Department of Agriculture, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4