The United States Department of Agriculture provides guidance on the topics related to food, agriculture, and natural resources, including energy, based on sound public policy, the best available science, and efficient management. .
History .
The original forerunner for the United Stated Department of Agriculture was the agriculture division of the US Patent Office. The office was directed by the Commissioner of Patents Henry Ellsworth in 1839. It was his passion in agriculture that lead to the creation of the department. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln created the U.S. Department of Agriculture. President Lincoln was a farm boy growing up, he was a strong supporter in the railroad expansion, homesteading, and grants to fund agricultural and engineering colleges. A few years later in 1865, congress would establish a program for imported animals that have been classified as diseased. Congress passed an act to quarantine imported animals, they passed this act on to the treasury department, but that did not fix the problem, as a result ranchers and veterinarians pressured for harsher regulation system. In 1884, Congress created the Bureau of Animal Industries the forerunner to the food safety and inspection service, which is located in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This was done as a preventative to keep diseased animals used as food consumption. This lead to foreign markets putting restrictions on U.S. food markets. The 1890 Food Inspection Act came from these restrictions to prevent and detect bad meat imports as we as poor quality meat in the U.S. 1905, a book was published that had a major effect on the meat packaging industries. It gave a vivid description of packing houses, grabbing the attention and support of the public to persuade President Theodor Roosevelt to have government inspection of slaughterhouses to pass the Food and Drug Act and Meat inspection act. (allgov.