USDA is an acronym for the United States Department of Agriculture. Since its beginning in 1862, the USDA has undergone many changes, including adding services that fall in seven mission areas. These are the Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services; Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services; Food Safety; Marketing and Regulatory Programs; Natural Resources and Environment; Research, Education and Economics; and Rural Development. From within these seven areas, national forests are protected, the food pyramid was developed and public health is protected.
Founding
Abraham Lincoln founded the U.S. Department of Agriculture, saying it was the "people's department."
Bureau of Animal Industry
The Bureau of Animal Industry was created by President Chester Arthur in 1884 when he signed into law the act that created it. The Food Safety and Inspection Service finds its roots in the Bureau.
Federal Meat Inspection Act
With its blunt and disgusting description of conditions in a meatpacking factory, "The Jungle," a book by Upton Sinclair, outraged the public in 1905. The furor caused Theodore Roosevelt to take action, leading to the 1906 Federal Meat Inspection Act. The law meant that meat had to be processed in clean conditions and inspected by federal agents.
Food and Drug Administration
The FDA started as the USDA's Bureau of Chemistry, which became the Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration in 1927, then renamed the Food and Drug Administration in 1931. The FDA was transferred out of the USDA in 1940 to what eventually became the Department of Health and Human Services.
U.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service was created in 1905. In World War II, after a Japanese submarine attacked an oil field in California, the Service realized the forests were vulnerable and began a fire prevention campaign. Smokey Bear became the campaign's mascot in 1944.
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