This is our fourth article in the mini-series outlining all federal executive departments. This week brings us to the Agriculture Department (USDA).
History and Origin
The economy of the fledgling United States was predominately agrarian. Innovation at the time meant new and improved varieties of seeds, plants, and livestock to import into the nation. This quest for scientific knowledge was actually the start of the Smithsonian Institution, although it did not include agriculture specifically. The Patent Office began collecting and distributing new crops and seeds in 1837, piloted by Henry Ellsworth, who is often called the “Father of the Department of Agriculture. “ By 1839, Congress established the Agricultural Division within the Patent Office, allotting it $1,000 for its collection project.
On May 15, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln (R-IL) established the first iteration of the department as we know it today. Through the Morrill Act, the Agriculture Department was formed as an independent agency staffed by only eight employees. Their main responsibility was to conduct research and development related to “agriculture, rural development, aquaculture, and human nutrition in the most general and comprehensive sense of those terms,” according to 7 U.S. Code §2201. Its first commissioner was Isaac Newton, a Virginia farmer who had sold farm products to the White House. Lincoln referred to the new department as the “people’s department,” as it reflected the vast majority of the nation’s business at the time. Newton’s contributions to the department include laying its foundation, pioneering federal agricultural statistics, promoting scientific research, and establishing the experimental farm on the National Mall.
In 1887, Congress granted the department Cabinet status and reorganized it under the Department of Agriculture in Labor. The USDA would then be given funding for agricultural experiment stations in each state and during World War I, funding would be appropriated for cooperative extension services to teach agriculture and home economics. With those distinctions, the USDA would reach out to every county in every state.
The first Secretary of Agriculture was Norman Jay Colman (R-MO), who served under Presidents Grover Cleveland (D-NY) and Benjamin Harrison (R-IN). Colman oversaw the transition of USDA to a Cabinet-level department and expanded the department’s bureaus and agricultural research. He was also publisher of Colman’s Rural World, a major agricultural journal. He contributed greatly to the Land-Grant College Act, which saw better farming techniques taught at specialized colleges, and the Hatch Act of 1887, which oversaw federal grants to colleges for a series of agricultural experiment states.
The USDA would find a pivotal role in the Great Depression. Although many had left their family farms for work and life in the big cities, they would soon return to those farms when the Depression hit in 1929. The USDA not only ensured that food continued to be produced and distributed, but also assisted with loans for small landowners, provided technical advice, and published shopping and cooking pointers to help families stretch their budgets and food stocks.
Secretary Henry Wallace (D-MN) is credited with having revolutionized the department. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) of 1933 paid farmers to limit the production of basic commodities and reduce crop surpluses. Controversially, the AAA subsidized the destruction of crops and culling of livestock to influence the supply and demand scales to raise the prices of goods. Under Wallace, 10 million acres of cotton were destroyed and 6 million pigs were slaughtered.
The Department of Agriculture Today
According to data from FY2024, the USDA employs nearly 100,000 people across 29 different agencies. The Forest Service sees the lion’s share with about 28,000 employees, followed by the Natural Resources Conservation Service at around 10,000. The size of the workforce has shrunk about 8% between 2010 to 2024. The staff’s oversight is typically concerned with food safety, rural development, and natural resource conservation.
For FY2026, the USDA has requested a $398.32 billion budget, about 71% of which goes to nutrition assistance programs.
Secretary Brooke Rollins (R-TX) serves as the thirty-third and current Secretary of Agriculture under President Donald Trump (R-FL). She was confirmed by the Senate last February in a 72-28 vote. Rollins grew up on a farm outside Fort Worth, Texas, and she would participate in the Future Farmers of America. As a lawyer, she worked as a commercial litigator for Hughes & Luce, LLP in Dallas and clerked for the Northern District of Texas. She also has experience under former Governor Rick Perry (R-TX).
Rollins worked in Trump’s first administration as an assistant for intergovernmental and technology initiatives, within the Office of American Innovation. In 2020, she was named Acting Director of the U.S. Domestic Policy Council.
Rollins is the second woman to hold her current position. Since her term started, she has opposed California’s animal welfare law, which prohibits the sale of food products raised in crates and cages. She has also advocated for the repeal of President Bill Clinton’s (D-AR) “roadless rule,” which has prevented any road construction on 58 million acres of national forest land, calling them “absurd obstacles to commonsense managements of our natural resources.”
Agencies
Stacked with twenty-nine agencies, the USDA is one of the most bureau-heavy executive departments in the federal government. The following descriptions are found on the USDA website.
Agricultural Marketing Service: handles “strategic marketing” of agricultural products in domestic and international markets while ensuring “fair trade practices.”
Agricultural Research Service: the “principal in-house scientific research agencies of the USDA” to ensure high-quality food, agricultural sustainability, and improve natural resource management.
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service: protects the “health and care of animals and plants.”
Economic Research Service: the USDA’s “principal social science research agency.”
Farm Service Agency: supports farmers, ranchers, and rural communities through safety net programs, disaster assistance, conservation efforts, and farm loans.” It also acts as a primary resource for farm records and registration.
Food and Nutrition Service: administers sixteen nutrition assistance programs, including SNAP, WIC, and school meals.
Food Safety and Inspection Service: the public health regulatory wing of the USDA, which “ensures that domestic and imported meat, poultry, and processed egg products are safe, wholesome, and properly labeled.” Oversees over 6,800 establishments.
Foreign Agricultural Service: “facilitates international trade for U.S. agriculture,” linking American farm products to global markets, providing market intelligence, and managing international food aid programs.
Forest Service: manages 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands, acting as a “conservation agency, conducting forestry research, managing timber sales, protecting water resources, facilitating recreation, and handling wildfire management.”
Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) Business Center: provides administrative and operational support to certain bureaus of the USDA, including human resources, information technology, and procurement.
National Agricultural Statistics Service: conducts hundreds of annual surveys and the once-every-five-years Census of Agriculture to provide “timely, accurate, and unbiased data” on American farming. It reports on production, supplies, prices, farm finances, demographics, and chemical uses.
National Institute of Food and Agriculture: the primary “extramural funding agency” for agricultural science to solve “national challenges in food, agriculture, and natural resources.”
Natural Resources of Conservation Service: aids farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners to conserve resources through “science-based technical and financial assistance.” The agency focuses on improving soil health, water quality, agricultural sustainability, and conservation plans.
Risk Management Agency: regulates federal crop insurance to help farmers manage risk.
Rural Development: helps rural development with federal assistance to improve quality of life and financial and technical resources.
Rural Utilities Service: provides funding to build and improve rural infrastructure, such as water, waste, electric, and broadband services.
Rural Housing Service: builds and improves housing and “essential community facilities” in rural areas, such as single- and multi-family housing, childcare centres, fire and police stations, hospitals, libraries, nursing homes, schools, first responder vehicles and equipment, and housing for farm labor.Rural Business-Cooperative Service: helps businesses grow, trains residents of rural areas in entrepreneurial skills, and helps those residents find jobs in “agricultural markets and the bio-based economy.”
