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About USDA

 

Welcome From the Secretary

In 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln founded the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he called it the "people's Department." In Lincoln's day, 58 percent of the people were farmers who needed good seeds and information to grow their crops. Today, USDA continues Lincoln's legacy by serving all Americans. USDA remains committed to helping America's farmers and ranchers. But we also do much more....

  • USDA leads the Federal anti-hunger effort with the Food Stamp, School Lunch, School Breakfast, and the WIC Programs.
  • USDA is the steward of our nation's 192 million acres of national forests and rangelands.
  • USDA is the country's largest conservation agency, encouraging voluntary efforts to protect soil, water, and wildlife on the 70 percent of America's lands that are in private hands.
  • USDA brings housing, modern telecommunications, and safe drinking water to rural America.
  • USDA is responsible for the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products.
  • USDA is a research leader in everything from human nutrition to new crop technologies that allow us to grow more food and fiber using less water and pesticides.
  • USDA helps ensure open markets for U.S. agricultural products and provides food aid to needy people overseas.

About ARS

Panoramic view of a farm's buildings and fields

We are the U.S. Department of Agriculture 's main in-house scientific research agency.

Our job is finding solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every day, from field to table-

  • Protecting crops and livestock from pests and disease,
  • Improving the quality and safety of agricultural products,
  • Determining the best nutrition for people from infancy to old age,
  • Sustaining our soil and other natural resources,
  • Ensuring profitability for farmers and processors,
  • Keeping costs down for consumers, and
  • Providing research support to other federal agencies.

Lasting solutions to these problems are unlikely to have a quick commercial payoff that might otherwise convince private industry to do the research. We work toward solutions by pursuing scientific discoveries. But our task is truly complete when we transfer discoveries to society as useful technology and knowledge.

Our scientists frequently collaborate with research partners from universities, companies, other organizations and other countries.

We take great care in designing and organizing our research effort, and we listen-and respond-to those with a stake in the outcome.

We follow a strategic plan we develop to meet our stakeholders' needs and support USDA's mission. We check our progress in carrying out that plan, and we modify it as circumstances require.

A few facts about the scope of our organization (figures rounded)-

  • 1,200 research projects within 22 National Programs
  • 2,100 scientists
  • 6,000 other employees
  • 100 research locations including a few in other countries
  • $1 billion fiscal year 2003 budget

ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. The others: