Article
ID: CBB001320820

Reflections on One Hundred and Fifty Years of the United States Department of Agriculture (2013)

unapi
Industrial administration Legislative and administrative regulations Science and government Foreign relations; diplomacy Tourism Agriculture Management; administration Science and politics Food industry and trade 19th century 20th century United States Southern states (U.S.) United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

This group of essays recognizes the sesquicentennial of the United States Department of Agriculture. The USDA was created in 1862, part of a body of legislation that the Union was able to enact once free from the constraints of the southern states. The legislation---the Morrill Land Grant Act, establishing federally supported higher education; the Homestead Act, allowing citizens to claim federal land in the American West; and the Pacific Railway Act, allotting federal land to private companies to capitalize railroad construction---substantially extended the reach of the federal government. Arguably, of all the 1862 legislation, the creation of the USDA has had the greatest impact on the lives of American citizens and on people around the world. With a wide mandate ranging from food stamps to foreign diplomacy, from tourism to grain surpluses, the USDA has both mirrored and influenced the good and bad of American culture. These five idiosyncratic essays address some of the myriad aspects of the USDA, reflecting on its history, writ large; its management of the nation's forests; its race relations; its efforts to conserve America's privately held lands; and its sometimes contradictory global initiatives. Together they comprise a varied set of lenses on this hugely influential bureaucracy.

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Authors & Contributors
Metz, John D.
Redding, Kent
Egli, Rebecca
Smångs, Mattias
John Hoenig
Kaplan, Rebecca
Journals
Technology and Culture
Social Science History
Science as Culture
Medical History
Hispanic American Historical Review
Food, Culture and Society
Publishers
Washington State University
University of California, San Francisco
University of California, Davis
University of North Carolina Press
University of California Press
Princeton University Press
Concepts
Agriculture
Food industry and trade
Science and government
Science and politics
Legislative and administrative regulations
Farms
People
Wallace, Henry Agard
Spillman, William Jasper
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
21st century
Places
United States
Southern states (U.S.)
California (U.S.)
England
Georgia (U.S.)
North America
Institutions
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
United States. Geological Survey
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