Foreign Agricultural Service

The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) is the foreign affairs agency with primary responsibility for the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) overseas programs—market development, international trade agreements and negotiations, and the collection of statistics and market information. It also administers the USDA's export credit guarantee and food aid programs and helps increase income and food availability in developing nations by mobilizing expertise for agriculturally led economic growth. In 2003, FAS began to return to a long-abandoned role in national security. The FAS mission statement reads, "Linking U.S. agriculture to the world to enhance export opportunities and global food security", and its motto is "Linking U.S. Agriculture to the World".[1]

Roots in analysis

USDA posted its first employee abroad in 1882, with assignment of Edmund Moffat to London.[2] In 1894, USDA created a Section of Foreign Markets in its Division of Statistics, which by 1901 numbered seven employees.[3]

Roster of the Section of Foreign Markets in 1901.

It was succeeded over the next few decades by increasingly larger units. Creation of this series of units in Washington to analyze foreign competition and demand for agricultural commodities was paralleled by assignment abroad of agricultural statistical agents, commodity specialists, and "agricultural commissioners".

Moffat went out as a "statistical agent" of USDA's Division of Statistics but with the status of Deputy Consul General on the roster of the Department of State at London.[4] Subsequent USDA officials assigned overseas, however, did not enjoy diplomatic or consular status. This impeded their work, which at that point consisted mainly of collecting, analyzing, and transmitting to Washington time-sensitive market information on agricultural commodities.[5]

1922 telegram from agricultural commissioner at London to USDA headquarters.

The analytical unit in Washington, by the early 1920s supervised by Leon Estabrook, deputy chief of USDA's Bureau of Agricultural Economics, compiled publications based on reports from the USDA's overseas staff, U.S. consuls abroad, and data collected by the Rome-based International Institute of Agriculture.[6]

In 1924, USDA officials Nils Olsen and Louis Guy Michael and Congressman John Ketcham began drafting legislation to create an agricultural attaché service with diplomatic status. The legislation passed the House multiple times, but it did not pass the Senate until 1930, in part due to opposition from then-Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover. Hoover, however, eventually supported the legislation in order to garner support of the farm bloc during his presidential campaign.[7] Accordingly, the Foreign Agricultural Service was created by the Foreign Agricultural Service Act of 1930 (46 Stat. 497), which President Herbert Hoover signed into law on June 5, 1930.

The law stipulated that the FAS consist of overseas USDA officials. The USDA also created a Foreign Agricultural Service Division within the Bureau of Agricultural Economics to serve as the FAS's headquarters staff in Washington, D.C., naming Asher Hobson, a noted economist and political scientist, as its first head. The 1930 Act explicitly granted the USDA's overseas officials diplomatic status and the right to the diplomatic title attaché. In short order, FAS posted additional staff overseas, to Marseille, Pretoria, Belgrade, Sydney, and Kobe, in addition to existing staff in London, Buenos Aires, Berlin, and Shanghai. In Washington, Hobson hired Lazar Volin, a Russian émigré, as the agency's first D.C.-based regional analyst, to specialize in the study of Russia as a competitor to U.S. agriculture.

International trade policy

Cover art for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics weekly circular in the 1930s.

In 1934, Congress passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, which stipulated that the President must consult with the Secretary of Agriculture when negotiating tariff reductions for agricultural commodities. Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace delegated this responsibility to the Foreign Agricultural Service Division, and thus began the FAS's role in formulation and implementation of international trade policy.[8] The FAS led agricultural tariff negotiations, first concluding a new tariff agreement with Cuba, followed by Belgium, Haiti, Sweden, Brazil and Colombia. By 1939, new agricultural tariffs were in place with 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States' largest agricultural trading partner.[9]

This new responsibility spurred a change in field reporting from overseas offices. In order to negotiate tariff agreements, the FAS needed comprehensive information on the domestic agricultural policies of trading partners, and the primary source of this information was the agency's field offices abroad. Thus, in addition to traditional commodity reporting, the attachés and commissioners were called on to add policy analysis to their portfolios.[10]

On December 1, 1938, the Foreign Agricultural Service Division was upgraded, made directly subordinate to the Secretary, and renamed simply the Foreign Agricultural Service. On July 1, 1939, however, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered all diplomatic personnel, including the agricultural attachés and commissioners, transferred to the Department of State.[11] The Foreign Agricultural Service was abolished, and its headquarters staff was renamed the Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations (OFAR).[12] At that time the Director of Foreign Agricultural Relations, Leslie A. Wheeler, was appointed by executive order to the Board of the Foreign Service and the Board of Examiners, an acknowledgement of OFAR's status as a foreign affairs agency.[13]

Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations

OFAR logo used 1939-1953, taken from a 1952 publication cover.

OFAR began handling food aid in 1941 when President Roosevelt and the Congress authorized $1.35 billion of food assistance to Great Britain. During this period OFAR also led negotiations that resulted in creation of the International Wheat Council, and began assisting Latin American countries to develop their agriculture. This latter effort was related to the need for strategic commodities as World War II loomed, as well as the need to tie South America closer to the Allies and thereby to keep Nazi Germany from gaining a foothold in the New World.[14] During World War II, OFAR analyzed food availability in both allied and enemy countries, and promoted the stockpiling of 100 million bushels (2.7 million metric tons) of wheat for feeding refugees after the anticipated end of the war.[15]

OFAR-created map of Asia, showing rice surplus and deficit areas.

After the war OFAR was instrumental in carrying out land reform in Japan and offering agricultural technical assistance under the Marshall Plan and the Point Four Program. By 1953, OFAR had roughly 400 agricultural specialists working on development programs in 27 foreign countries. OFAR also continued food aid programs, particularly using the Agricultural Act of 1949's authorities to donate surplus commodities. The intent of these efforts was first, to combat communism; second, to promote export sales of U.S. agricultural products; and third, to improve diets in foreign countries through extension of technical assistance and technology transfer.[16]

At this point OFAR directed the work of overseas technical assistance programs while the Department of State directed the work of the agricultural attachés. Frictions began to develop as the Department of State began to deny USDA requests for information from the attachés, leading to pressure from both agricultural producer groups and influential congressmen for the attachés to be returned to USDA control.[17]

OFAR participated actively with the Department of State in negotiating the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), signed in 1947 and expanded through subsequent negotiation rounds, although agriculture was not a major focus until the Uruguay Round of negotiations. At the same time, OFAR was heavily involved in founding the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, with Director of Foreign Agricultural Relations Leslie A. Wheeler playing a particularly instrumental role.[15]

FAS is reconstituted

On March 10, 1953, Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson abolished OFAR and reconstituted the Foreign Agricultural Service.[18] In April 1954 FAS handed off national security–related technical assistance to the International Cooperation Administration (USAID's forerunner) and began to concentrate on foreign market development for U.S. agricultural commodities, signaling a radical shift in the agency's focus.[19] On September 1, 1954, following passage of H.R. 8033 (P.L. 83-690), the agricultural attachés were transferred back from State Department to FAS.

In the same year, Congress passed Public Law 480 (P.L. 83-480), the Food for Peace Act, which became the backbone of FAS's food aid and market development efforts. Agricultural attachés began negotiating agreements for concessional sale of U.S. farm commodities to foreign countries on terms of up to 30 years and in their own local currencies.

The old FAS logo, 1953-2003

In 1955 FAS began signing cooperative agreements with groups representing American producers of specific commodities in order to expand foreign demand. The first such agreement was signed with the National Cotton Council. This activity came to be called the Market Development Cooperator Program, and the groups themselves to be called "cooperators".[20]

In 1961 the General Sales Manager of USDA's Commodity Stabilization Service (CSS) and his staff were merged into FAS, bringing with them operational responsibility for export credit and food aid programs. In particular, the General Sales Manager was responsible for setting prices for export sale of USDA-owned surplus commodities that had been acquired through domestic farm support programs.[21] At the same time, the CSS Barter and Stockpiling Manager was also moved to FAS. In the postwar era USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation was heavily involved in efforts to barter CCC-owned commodities acquired via domestic farm support programs for strategic commodities available from foreign countries short of hard currency. By the mid-1960s, however, as European and Asian economies recovered, the emphasis on barter waned.[22]

In 1969 the General Sales Manager and his staff were split off to form a separate USDA agency, the Export Marketing Service (EMS).[23] In 1974, however, EMS was re-merged with FAS.[24] In 1977, under pressure from the Congress, the Carter Administration created an "Office of the General Sales Manager" nominally headed by the General Sales Manager, but in reality still a subunit of FAS and subordinate to the FAS Administrator.[25] In 1981 the Ronald Reagan Administration abolished the Office of the General Sales Manager and formally restored its status as a program area of FAS.[26] During that time, the GSM's responsibilities expanded from mere disposition of surplus commodities to management of commodity export credit guarantee programs, foreign food assistance programs, and direct credit programs.

The Foreign Agricultural Service, a foreign affairs agency since 1930, was included in the Foreign Service Act of 1980. Agricultural attachés were offered the choice of remaining civil servants or being grandfathered into the Foreign Service. Since that time the vast majority of agricultural officers overseas, just like State Department officials overseas, have been Foreign Service Officers. Since 1953, 12 former agricultural attachés have been confirmed as American Ambassadors.

Major events

Trade tensions with the European Economic Community (EEC) boiled over in 1962 with the first "Chicken War", a trade dispute arising from the EEC's application of protective tariffs on poultry meat imported from the United States in retaliation for President Kennedy's imposition of a ceiling on textile imports and raising of tariffs on carpets, glass and bicycles. FAS negotiators and analysts, including future Administrator Rolland "Bud" Anderson, supported talks that resulted in the EEC paying $26 million in damages, though in Anderson's words, "We won the battle but lost the war as U.S. exports of these products to Europe soon became insignificant". The so-called "Chicken War" was a precursor to numerous other trade disputes, including the 2002 "Poultry War", when Russia retaliated against the United States' steel tariffs by barring imports of U.S. poultry meat, and the dispute over the European Union's ban on imports of U.S. beef produced from cattle treated with growth promotants.

In 1972 a short grain crop in the USSR resulted in the Soviet Union quietly concluding grain purchasing contracts from a relatively small number of the secretive private multinational grain traders who dominated world trade in cereals. Because crop surveys in mid-spring had given the impression of a normal crop, FAS's agricultural attaché in Moscow chose not to follow up with additional crop observation travel, and thus missed a severe drought that set in after the last trip. As a result of this lapse, international grain traders and exporting nations were unaware of the Soviets' dire need for massive grain imports. By the time the scope of Soviet purchases became known, the USSR had locked in supplies at low, subsidized prices, leaving other importers and consumers scrambling for what was left at significantly higher prices.[27][28] This event, known as the "Great Grain Robbery", led to creation in the Foreign Agricultural Service of a satellite imagery unit for remote sensing of foreign crop conditions, negotiation of a long-term grain agreement (LTA) with the Soviet Union, and imposition of an export sales reporting requirement for U.S. grain exporters. It also impressed on FAS the need for "boots-on-the-ground" observation of crop conditions in critical countries.

In the 1980s, the European Economic Community (EEC) emerged as a competitor for export sales, particularly of grain. EEC export restitutions (subsidies) undercut U.S. sales, with the result that farm-state Members of Congress, led by Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, pushed through new legislation authorizing broader subsidization of commercial export sales. This Export Enhancement Program (or EEP, though it was originally called "BICEP" by Senator Dole) was used primarily to counter EEC subsidies in important markets. Use of EEP opened the United States to criticism from less developed countries on the grounds that export subsidies undercut their own farmers by depressing global commodity prices. By the mid-1990s EEP was largely abandoned in favor of negotiating for a multilateral ban on agricultural export subsidies; it was last used, for a single sale, during the Clinton administration. With founding of the World Trade Organization in January 1995, trade-distorting domestic agricultural supports were capped in all member states and absolute import quotas were banned, but negotiations on eliminating export subsidies continue still.

Food aid

FAS has managed food assistance programs since 1941, and today uses a mix of statutory authorities. The traditional programs are Section 416(b) of the Agricultural Act of 1949, which makes surplus commodities available for donation overseas, and Title I of Public Law 480 (Food for Peace), which authorizes concessional sales. These programs were designed to support government-to-government transactions. The 1985 Farm Bill created the Food for Progress program, which facilitated delivery of food aid through non-governmental organizations as well as foreign governments. Food for Progress can draw on multiple sources, including in-kind surplus commodities and appropriated funds.

The most recent addition to the array of FAS-implemented food aid programs is the McGovern/Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program. Named in honor of Senator Dole and Senator George McGovern, it supports school feeding programs in less developed countries, and reserves authority for supporting maternal and child health programs. It was authorized by the 2002 Farm Bill and reauthorized in 2008. Funding sources have varied since the pilot Global Food for Education program was deployed in fiscal year 2001, often combining both appropriated funds and funding from the Commodity Credit Corporation’s borrowing authority.[29][30]

International development and national security

The FAS Millennium logo, 2003-2013, based in part on the USDA "rolling fields" logo

After a nine-year hiatus from international agricultural development work at USDA, on July 12, 1963, Secretary Orville Freeman ordered creation of an International Agricultural Development Service (IADS), which was subordinate to the same Assistant Secretary of Agriculture as but separate from FAS. IADS served as USDA's liaison with USAID and other assistance organizations, linking them to USDA expertise in pursuit of developmental goals. Matthew Drosdoff was hired effective February 19, 1964, to be the first permanent Administrator of IADS. In March 1969, after the Richard Nixon Administration came to power, IADS was briefly merged into FAS, then in November 1969 was split out into a separate Foreign Economic Development Service (FEDS). On February 6, 1972, FEDS was abolished and its functions transferred to the Economic Research Service, where it became the Foreign Development Division.[31]

In 1977, Quentin West proposed consolidating three USDA units involved in technical assistance and development work into a single agency to be called the Office of International Cooperation and Development: the Foreign Development Division, the Science and Education Administration, an interagency consortium funded by foreign currency earnings, and FAS' International Organization Affairs Staff. West's proposal was accepted and thus OICD was created, with responsibility for technical assistance, training, foreign currency-funded research, and international organization liaison.[32] In 1994 USDA's Office of International Cooperation and Development was merged with FAS, bringing technical assistance back to FAS after a 40-year absence.[33]

In 2003 FAS posted agricultural officers to Baghdad, not for the by-then traditional purposes of market intelligence and market development, but to reconstruct the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. FAS also began organizing USDA contributions to Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq and Afghanistan.[34][35] This marked FAS' return to national security work.[36][37] Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has pledged to continue and to expand that work.[38] FAS' role in national security work, however, remains controversial.[39][40][41][42]

Heads of Service and ambassadors

Heads of Service

From 1930 to about 1934, division heads in USDA, including the heads of the Foreign Agricultural Service Division, had no formal title, but were referred to as "In-charge", though the Official Register of the United States Government listed them as "Chief".[43] Beginning around 1934 and until 1938, the head of FASD was called the "Chief". When FAS was renamed in 1938, the head was titled "Director", and that title carried over into OFAR and then the renewed FAS until 1954. The first head of FAS to bear the title "Administrator" was William Lodwick in that year.[44] Heads of the Foreign Agricultural Service and Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations since 1930 have been (periods as acting head are in italics):

Name Term Agency
Asher Hobson 1930–1931 Foreign Agricultural Service Division
Bureau of Agricultural Economics
Leslie A. Wheeler 1931-1934, 1934–1938 Foreign Agricultural Service Division
Bureau of Agricultural Economics
Leslie A. Wheeler 1938–1939 Foreign Agricultural Service
Leslie A. Wheeler 1939–1948 Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations
Dennis A. FitzGerald 1948–1949 Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations
Fred J. Rossiter 1949 Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations
Stanley Andrews 1949–1952 Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations
Francis A. Flood 1952 Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations
John J. Haggerty 1952–1953 Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations
Francis R. Wilcox 1953 Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations
Romeo Ennis Short 1953 Foreign Agricultural Service
Clayton E. Whipple 1953-1954 Foreign Agricultural Service
William G. Lodwick 1954–1955 Foreign Agricultural Service
Gwynn Garnett 1955–1958 Foreign Agricultural Service
Maxwell S. Myers 1958–1961 Foreign Agricultural Service
Robert C. Tetro 1961–1962 Foreign Agricultural Service
Raymond A. Ioanes 1962–1973 Foreign Agricultural Service
David L. Hume 1973–1977 Foreign Agricultural Service
Thomas R. Hughes 1977–1981 Foreign Agricultural Service
Richard A. Smith 1981–1985 Foreign Agricultural Service
Thomas O. Kay 1985–1989 Foreign Agricultural Service
Rolland E. Anderson 1989–1991 Foreign Agricultural Service
Duane C. Acker 1991–1992 Foreign Agricultural Service
Stephen L. Censky 1992-1993 Foreign Agricultural Service
Richard B. Schroeter 1993-1994 Foreign Agricultural Service
August Schumacher, Jr. 1994–1997 Foreign Agricultural Service
Lon S. Hatamiya 1997–1999 Foreign Agricultural Service
Timothy J. Galvin 1999–2001 Foreign Agricultural Service
Mattie R. Sharpless 2001 Foreign Agricultural Service
Mary T. Chambliss 2001-2002 Foreign Agricultural Service
A. Ellen Terpstra 2002–2006 Foreign Agricultural Service
Michael W. Yost 2006–2009 Foreign Agricultural Service
Suzanne K. Hale 2009 Foreign Agricultural Service
Michael V. Michener 2009 Foreign Agricultural Service
John D. Brewer 2010-2011 Foreign Agricultural Service
Suzanne E. Heinen 2011-2012, 2012-2013 Foreign Agricultural Service
Philip C. Karsting 2013- Foreign Agricultural Service

General Sales Managers

General Sales Managers since 1955 have been (periods as acting GSM are in italics):

Name Term Agency
Francis C. Daniels 1955–1959 Commodity Stabilization Service
Sylvester J. Meyers 1959–1961 ditto
Frank LeRoux 1961–1966 Foreign Agricultural Service
James A. Hutchins, Jr. 1966-1967, 1968-1969 ditto
George Parks 1967–1968 ditto
Clifford Pulvermacher 1969–1972 Export Marketing Service
Laurel Meade 1972–1974 ditto
George S. Shanklin 1974 Foreign Agricultural Service
James Hutchinson 1974–1977 ditto
Kelly Harrison 1977–1981 ditto
Alan Tracy 1981–1982 ditto
Melvin Sims 1982–1989 ditto
F. Paul Dickerson 1989–1991 ditto
Christopher E. Goldthwait 1991-1993, 1993–1999 ditto
Richard Fritz 1999–2001 ditto
Mary T. Chambliss 2001 ditto
Franklin D. Lee 2001-2002 ditto
W. Kirk Miller 2002–2009 ditto
Patricia R. Sheikh 2009 ditto
John D. Brewer 2009 ditto
Christian Foster 2010 ditto
Janet A. Nuzum 2010-2011 ditto
Suzanne E. Heinen 2011-2013 ditto
Philip C. Karsting 2013-2014 ditto
Asif J. Chaudhry 2014-2015 ditto
Suzanne Palmieri 2015- ditto

Heads of International Development

Administrators of the Office of International Cooperation and Development and its predecessors from creation until it was merged with FAS in 1994 were (periods as acting Administrator are in italics):

Name Term Agency
Matthew Drosdoff 1964–1966 International Agricultural Development Service
Lester R. Brown 1966–1969 ditto
Quentin West 1969–1972 Foreign Economic Development Service
Quentin West 1972–1977 Foreign Development Division, Economic Research Service
Quentin West 1977–1980 Office of International Cooperation and Development
Ruth Zagorin 1980-1981 ditto
Joan S. Wallace 1981–1989 ditto
Robert Scherle 1989-1990 ditto
Steve Abrams 1990 ditto
Duane Acker 1990–1992 ditto
John Miranda 1992-1993 ditto
Lynnett M. Wagner 1993–1994 ditto

Ambassadors

Agricultural officers who have served or are serving as Ambassadors are:

Name Agricultural Posts Ambassadorships, Presidential Appointments, Significant Appointments
Lester D. Mallory assistant agricultural commissioner, Marseille and Paris; agricultural attaché, Paris and Mexico City Jordan 1953-58, Guatemala 1958-59, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State 1960
Charles R. Burrows assistant agricultural attaché (rank of vice consul), Buenos Aires Honduras 1960-65
Howard R. Cottam agricultural economist, Paris; agricultural attaché, Rome Kuwait 1963-69
Clarence A. Boonstra assistant agricultural attaché, Havana; agricultural attaché, Manila, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Lima Costa Rica 1967-69
Philip Habib agricultural attaché (vice consul), Ottawa and Wellington South Korea 1971-74; Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs 1974-1976; Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs 1976-78; Acting Secretary of State 1977; Special Negotiator for the Middle East 1981; winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom 1982; featured on a postage stamp 2006
H. Reiter Webb assistant agricultural attaché, London; agricultural attaché, Cairo Chief Negotiator for Textile Matters with rank of Ambassador 1979-81 (not confirmed by the Senate)
George S. Vest agricultural attaché (vice consul), Quito European Community 1981-85, Director General of the Foreign Service 1985-89
Christopher E. Goldthwait assistant agricultural attaché, Bonn; agricultural attaché and counselor at Lagos Chad 1999-2004
Mattie R. Sharpless administrative assistant, Paris (OECD); assistant agricultural attaché, Brussels USEC; agricultural attaché, Bern; agricultural counselor, Rome; agricultural minister-counselor, Paris Central African Republic 2001-2002
Suzanne K. Hale agricultural attaché and agricultural trade officer, Tokyo; agricultural minister-counselor, Beijing and Tokyo Federated States of Micronesia 2004-2007
Patricia M. Haslach agricultural attaché, New Delhi Laos 2004-2007, APEC 2008-2009, Coordinator for Assistance Transition in Iraq (with ambassadorial rank) 2009-2010, Deputy Coordinator for Diplomacy, Office of the Coordinator for the Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative, 2010-2013, Ethiopia 2013-
Asif J. Chaudhry agricultural attaché, Warsaw; senior agricultural attaché, counselor, and acting minister-counselor, Moscow; agricultural minister-counselor, Cairo Moldova 2008-2011, Foreign Policy Advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations, 2011-2014
Allan Mustard agricultural attaché, Moscow; agricultural trade officer, Istanbul; agricultural counselor, Vienna; agricultural minister-counselor, Moscow, Mexico City, and New Delhi Turkmenistan, 2015-

See also

References

  1. ↑ "FAS Mission Statement". Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  2. ↑ National Archives, Record Group 59, General Records of the Department of State, Consular Correspondence, 1785-1906, Instructions to Consular Officers, Consular Instructions, 1800-1906, vol. 104, p. 99, call number A-1, Entry 59
  3. ↑ Official Register of the United States Government, 1901, vol. 1, p. 1094
  4. ↑ Moffat's status is attested in the British diplomatic lists in London, the Official Register of the United States Government, and the State Department Register.
  5. ↑ Clem, The U.S. Agricultural Attaché, His History and His Work
  6. ↑ Letter from Secretary Henry C. Wallace to the Hon. Milton William Shreve, May 3, 1924, in the National Archives, Record Group 16, Records of the Secretary of Agriculture, General Correspondence 1906-1970 (1924), Box 1032.
  7. ↑ Papers of Nils Olsen and Reminiscences of Leslie A. Wheeler
  8. ↑ Organization and Functions of the Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations
  9. ↑ Progress in tariff negotiations is documented in the annual Report of the Secretary of Agriculture for the years 1935 -1939.
  10. ↑ Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, 1935, p. 6.
  11. ↑ Reorganization Plan No. II
  12. ↑ Secretary's Memorandum 825, June 30, 1939
  13. ↑ National Archives, Record Group 16, General Correspondence of the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture, 170/6/34/1, Box 3024, and also Reminiscences of Leslie A. Wheeler.
  14. ↑ National Archives, Record Group 16, Records of the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture, General Correspondence, 1906-75, Foreign Relations (1940), Box 87. Memorandum for the Secretary, June 25, 1940, "Re: Need for clearer publicity on Inter-American cartel," from Mordecai Ezekial
  15. 1 2 Reminiscences of Leslie A. Wheeler
  16. ↑ "The United States Farmer and the World Around Him", speech by John J. Haggerty, Director of Foreign Agricultural Relations, contained in the Journal of Farm Economics, December 1952
  17. ↑ Memorandum by Fred J. Rossiter, Assistant Administrator, Foreign Agricultural Service, January 26, 1954
  18. ↑ Secretary's Memorandum 1320, Supplement 1, March 10, 1953
  19. ↑ Memorandum of Understanding between USDA and Department of State on "Conduct of Technical Assistance Overseas," April 14, 1954, and also Memorandum "To All Employees of the Foreign Agricultural Service" from acting Administrator Clayton E. Whipple, November 19, 1953
  20. ↑ Howard, et al, Partners in Developing Farm Markets Overseas
  21. ↑ Commodity Stabilization Service Notice General No. 305, June 28, 1955; Secretary's Memorandum 1446, February 24, 1961
  22. ↑ National Archives, Record Group 166, Records of the Foreign Agricultural Service, Policy Correspondence 1951-1964, Boxes 2, 4, 6, 7.
  23. ↑ Secretary's Memorandum No. 1648, Supplement 1, March 28, 1969
  24. ↑ Secretary's Memorandum 1833, Supplement 1, February 1, 1974
  25. ↑ Secretary's Memorandum 2001, November 27, 1979, and interview with George Pope, former Assistant Administrator for Export Credits, Foreign Agricultural Service
  26. ↑ Interview with George Pope
  27. ↑ Morgan, Merchants of Grain; Luttrell, "The Russian Wheat Deal - Hindsight vs. Foresight, Reprint No. 81"
  28. ↑ Oral history of R. Keith Severin.
  29. ↑ Partially derived from information on the FAS website at http://www.fas.usda.gov/food-aid.asp.
  30. ↑ Interview with Mary T. Chambliss, former Deputy Administrator for Export Credits, Foreign Agricultural Service
  31. ↑ Personal recollections of Verle Lanier, Richard Rortvedt, and Mollie Iler, augmented by information gleaned from past issues of the FAS Letter and miscellaneous records from the National Archives and Records Administration.
  32. ↑ Interview with Hal G. Wynne, former budget director, Foreign Agricultural Service, cited in Mustard.
  33. ↑ Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994
  34. ↑ Rebuilding Agriculture and Food Security in Iraq, News About Iraqi Agricultural Reconstruction (2003–Present)
  35. ↑ USDA at Work for Agriculture in Afghanistan, November 2010
  36. ↑ Foreign Service Journal, May 2009, FAS At a Crossroads: Reshaping Ag Diplomacy (pp. 27-31)
  37. ↑ Statement by Michael V. Michener Administrator, Foreign Agricultural Service, U.S. Department Of Agriculture, before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Washington, DC, Tuesday, May 19, 2009
  38. ↑ Washington Post, "Tom Vilsack: Leading 'an Everyday, Every-Way' USDA", May 21, 2009
  39. ↑ Jerry Hagstrom, "Interagency debate over FAS role heats up", Government Executive, October 9, 2009.
  40. ↑ Jerry Hagstrom, "Conflict Over FAS/USAID Roles: Clinton Strong Defender of FAS Traditional Purpose", Progressive Farmer, October 9, 2009
  41. ↑ Jerry Hagstrom, "Lugar questioning FAS role", AgWeek, October 5, 2009
  42. ↑ Hagstrom, Jerry (December 23, 2009). "Head of Foreign Agricultural Service reassigned". Government Executive.
  43. ↑ Wheeler, Reminiscences, and Official Register
  44. ↑ Official Register

Bibliography

Further reading

U.S. government websites

Other publications and documents

Oral Histories On Line

Media Articles (chronological order)

External links

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of Agriculture.
 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Archives and Records Administration.
 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress.

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