The US Department of Agriculture - Essay Example

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) The department of Agriculture in United was started with various objective such as; assisting farmers with price support subsides to afford agricultural inputs, checking the safety standards of the food health to the public consumption, expand overseas market for United State agricultural goods for foreign exchange purpose and support economic growth by creating job opportunities for employment, improve living standards and social amenities and provide nutrition and health by providing food to the public. United State Department of Agriculture originally known as the Agricultural Division of the United State headed by Commissioner of Patents Henry Ellsworth in 1839. His strong interest was to collect and disperse seeds through members of the societies. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln established the United State Department of Agriculture. His main interest was to expand railway to enhance transport and communication, provide land grants funds for the purpose of creating more land for agriculture practice and establishing learning institution such as colleges to impact knowledge and skills on agriculture. He encouraged use of technological advancements such as use of horse-drawn machine instead to replace of human labor. In 1965, it was noted that livestock was imported with disease infections which resulted to passing an act of quarantine on all imported livestock by the congress of veterinaries and ranchers but Treasury Department did little to assist them hence had to push for more regulation solutions. In 1884, Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) was established after the Food Safety and Inspection Service had been established to avoid infected livestock from be used as food and food products. In 1890, there was restriction on food imported from United State by foreign markets hence led to establishment of Food Inspection Act to inspect agricultural products such as bad meat and poor quality food that can cause health problems to consumers. In 1906, Upton Sinclair pushed for establishment of Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act by describing the conditions of meat packing in Chicago that should be applied in meat-industries and to have government health inspectors frequently inspect slaughterhouses. The Bureau of Chemistry enforced the Food and Drug Act while Bureau Animal Inspection (BAI) regulated Meat Inspection Act as part of USDA agencies. In 1920, the Food and Drug Administration took over the duty of inspecting eggs from BAI who had that duty since 1902. Since the Great Depression, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took over, USDA expanded it roles and begun Rural Housing Service and Rural Utilities Service programs aiming at assisting rural farmers to eradicate poverty in poor communities (George 60). During 1950s, when President Dwight Eisenhower took over, Bureau Animal Act and other divisions in United State Department of Agriculture were eliminated and Agriculture Research Service (ARS) was established to take their responsibilities. In 1957, poultry industry was increasingly growing and led to creation of Poultry Product Inspection Act to check on poultry observation of health conditions. From 1950 to 1960s, the issue of consumer protection and safety shifted from the focus on meat and food products to products from chemical additives such as mislabeling and adulteration of products. Since 1970, the Agriculture Research Service has consistently enforced health safety on all agricultural products to ensure Food Safety and Quality through programs such as Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) (George 92). The U.S Department of Agriculture help American farmers to produce food products that ensure health safety to consumers by administering programs such as nutrition education and food assistance programs, inspection of the quality of food to ensure the food is free form diseases, managing natural resources such as public land and national forests and grassland through conservation services development of rural areas by creating agricultural industries, electrification and building community resource such as schools, health units and availing water in dry areas in rural community. Moreover, USDA assists in the marketing farmers produce through granting loans, supporting commodity pricing by helping the access foreign markets, conservation payments and disaster relief assistance for an avoidable losses from natural calamities such as disease outbreak and insufficient rainfall. Lastly, USDA, conduct research through ARS that help farmers to find solutions to their several problems that are discouraging to them such as diseasesoutbreak and also predict the seasonal yields for the performance of different commodities through providing the farmers with National Agricultural Statistics (George 116). How This Bureaucracy Function in Our Everyday Life. Agriculture Department has been acting in vigor since agriculture is a main sector that contributes high percentage of the economic growth through foreign exchange of some nations worldwide due the comparative advantage. Comparative advantage applies that different nations have favorable climatic conditions that favor growing of certain agricultural commodities compared to others. Therefore, such nations leap lump sum from foreign exchange by exports and concentrate a lot on agriculture. Agriculture Department has tried to educate farmers to stop over viewing agriculture just as farming for the purpose of subsistence only but as a commercial activity that can be able to satisfy their financial needs to accomplish various purposes in their daily life. Through the government support by allocating agriculture more money during the budget, the agriculture department has been able to support farmers and consumers. For example; help farmers through education by employing more agricultural extension officers, providefinancial support such as loans, encouraging formation of cooperatives where their issues can be solved more easily due to fast access by the National Agriculture Department. On the other hand, consumers have been also encouraged to form consumer cooperatives where their different issues are easily solved by the National Agriculture Department. The last encounter I had with the issue concerning agriculture was the adverse public relations carried out by agricultural extension officers trying to encourage people to practice the Genetic Modified Organisms (GMO) form of farming by the farmers to try to cope with the current unfavorable climatic condition that greatly negatively affected agriculture. If I am given an opportunity to lead the United State Department of Agriculture, I would start by restructuring the leadership. This is because as seen from the budget allocation of funds for agriculture there is embezzlement of funds showing that there are corrupt officials in Agriculture Department who are not trustworthy with the public money. Instead of using the money to assist farmers and consumers, there are putting the money in their pockets. This means that Agriculture Department will consistently show poor performance and we will continue importing agricultural products that we can produce in our country especially with the modern technology we have. About the policy to use, I would ensure; start by establishing law that would hold the present leadership accountable for failure in Agriculture Department today and make them return the money they had misused.Then elect new leaders using the criteria of past performance specification of which are they can perform best and with passion without forgetting considering their trustworthy status with public money. I would also ensure conducting thorough evaluation of each leader performance in various Agriculture sub- departments. After evaluation, failure would is accompanied with explanation from the responsible leaders where consequence would follow and reward improving departments. For the American people, I would ensure that consumers enjoy adequate agricultural products that of their quality choice and safe for them to consume with no health problems while farmers enjoy the fruits of what they sow and always be there to listen and solve amicably their complaints. Doing so every party in Agriculture will always feel motivated and will perform their parts to their level best. Works Cited Brown, L.R. Increasing World Food Output. Washington. DC. Department of agriculture (USDA) publication. (1965). Print Fishbourne, N. & B. Geagh. Food Policies and Social Supply.University of California. Davis press. (1976). Print George & Wells J.C. 1964. An Appraisal of Agricultural Investments. Washington DC. New York Times. (1964). Print . Read More