Department+of+Agriculture

**__Department of Agriculture__ **



Current leader -The current leader of the Department of Agriculture, is the Secretary of Agriculture is Tom Vilsack. He was sworn in as the 30th Secretary and was appointed by Barack Obama.

THE MISSION STATEMENT

Their Mission is- "We provide leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, and related issues based on sound public policy, the best available science, and efficient management."

They are stating they are trying to advance and provide resources for the public and assured with their safety. Budget



The budget of the agriculture is very expandable. And the priorities differ every year. The budget is spend on such items such as:

food and agriculture defense- The funding done for this program is to help protect our nations food supply. To help control and improve animal vaccinations and to help monitor to prevent pests and disease threats in our country. They have increase the funding to help improve our safety.

food safety- The funding will insure the nation's safety to help prevent and detect the matter of food borne illnesses in eggs, meat, and poultry.

Farm Support- The funding helps farm produce more food for our country. Since 2006 the production has been down due to factors such as poor weather conditions and the increase usage of ethanol. So the point is to increase the farm economy.

Domestic Nutrition assistance- Helps improve 3 major food assistance programs. Food Stamps, child nutrition, and WIC. To help make sure that people who can't afford food can still eat at a affordable price. Also to make sure that children are eating properly in schools.

History

In 1776, George Washington proposed that the U.S. Congress establish a National Board of agriculture. Agriculture at that time was a fragmented business. Congress did nothing at the time, but by 1825, both the House of Representatives and the Senate had agriculture committees. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln founded the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At that time, ninety percent of all Americans made at least part of their income from farming. In 1889, the Department of Agriculture was raised to Cabinet status. In the early years of this country no one really knew about different bacteria's that lived in unpreserved meat. People were getting sick and dying from this unpreserved/ bad meat, but they couldn't give up eating it. The Department of Agriculture set about to change this. The first Meat Inspection Acts were passed in 1890 and 1891. From this time forward the Government had authority to inspect slaughterhouses for hygienic purposes. In 1906, the Food and Drug act was passed, and it was at this time that the USDA began to educate the population on food handling and preparation. Only 2% of Americans work in agriculture today, but the Department has expanded from its rural roots. It still helps rural Americans with everything from farm loans to housing. Over half of its budget goes to provide food stamps and meal programs for the elderly and disadvantaged.

** Recession slams state agriculture industry ** By Bob Keefe The Atlanta Journal-Constitution April 19, 2009  http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/04/19/agrecession0419.html The recession caused prices for commodities to fall as much as 50 percent in recent months. Agricultural exports, which surged by an unprecedented $33 billion to new highs last year, are now expected to fall by $20 billion this year. Farm incomes, which also reached records last year, are now projected to drop 17 percent, according to recently released figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

** Recession forces immigrants back to work in fields By Saundra Amrhein Times ** May 4, 2009 http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article997735.ece

Migrating families usually leave for field work in northern states in late May or June when school lets out. But this year, they were gone early. Locally, there weren't enough strawberry jobs to go around. With field and construction jobs in short supply, some fathers who stopped migrating years ago began moving alone around Florida in search of work. Legal immigrants, who held the advantage with proper work documents, competed with illegal immigrants for even the toughest of field jobs, planting and picking strawberries.

Recession prompts big boom in the market for vegetable seeds

The recession is causing people to buy seeds and grow their own vegetable gardens. They say demand has tripled over last spring and seed company's are needing to hire employees in order to keep up with the demand.

by: Kevin Eigelbach May 1,2009 Published: American Business Journals http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2009/05/04/story10.html?b=1241409600^1821851

Swine flu causing sweating and nausea in Washington, D.C. []

- The aricle summarizes that the media is over exaggerating on the swine flu and not giving the people enough details about the pandemic. Then goes on to say that the Department of Agriculture leader Tom Wilsack says not to call it swine flu. Because it would be a "detrimental to animal agriculture in the United States." That the meat is ok and the Deparment has cleared the food of any disease so far.

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 * CDC and USDA Declare Pork Perfectly Safe to Eat ** By Rocco 'Boss Hog' Loosbrock, News Blaze; May 4th 2009

-The article summarizes that with the swine flu going around. People are fearing to eat pork, thinking that you get the disease from eating pork. But it's not true. Swine flu isn't the actual correct name for it. Its just the media phrase and the CDC and USDA have checked meat from bacon, sausage, and ham that has been imported into the U.S. and the disease has not been found in any of the products at this point. Declaring it safte to eat. stating if their was any disease, pork is usually cooked so the bacteria and disease would be killed when cooked.

State officials escape swine flu on trip By Dana Beyerle, Times Daily; May 4th 2009 []

-the article summarizes that the Department of Agriculture just dodged the bullet. The State Agriculture participants were just on a trip in Mexico in mid April. With the recent outbreak of the Swine Flu, all participants were examined and have declared free of the virus. If they have not had any of the symptoms they should be fine and they have not spread the virus to anyone in the U.S.

Recommendations

Dear President Obama

I think you need to help us get out of the recession. I think you will slowly get the United States out of this economic crisis, and give people jobs, make food more reasonable priced, and give more people homes. From Mic DeBellis

Dear Pres. Barack Obama,

With the recent outbreak of the swine flu in as many as 18 countries and over 1000 confirmed cases. I feel we must stop all out of country traveling to and from the US unless absolutely neccessary. Because until we get this under control I feel its just gonna keep on spreading. We have to solve the pandemic in the US first and then help the other countries. So this issue can get resolved. We need the Department of Agriculture with the new technology try to find a cure for this virus.

From, Jeff Warner.

Webquest questions:

The Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, was sworn in as the___ Secretary. Who proposed that the US Congress established a National Board of Agriculture in 1776?