The
Foreign Agricultural Service (
FAS) has primary responsibility for the
United States Department of AgricultureThe United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
's (USDA) overseas programs—market development,
international trade agreementsA trade pact is a wide ranging tax, tariff and trade pact that often includes investment guarantees. Trade pacts are frequently politically contentious since they may change economic customs and deepen interdependence with trade partners. Increasing efficiency through "free trade" is a common goal...
and negotiations, and the collection of
statisticsStatistics is a branch of mathematics concerned with collecting and interpreting data. According to other definitions, it is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data. Statisticians improve the quality of data with the...
and market information. It also administers 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. Beginning in 2003, FAS began to return to a long-abandoned role in national security. The FAS mission statement reads, "To create economic opportunity for American agriculture by expanding global markets," and its motto is, "Linking U.S. Agriculture to the World."
Roots in Analysis
USDA posted its first employee abroad in 1882, with assignment of Edmund J. Moffat to London. 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. 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.
Creation of a 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 "commissioners". The analytical unit in Washington, supervised by Leon Estabrook, deputy chief of USDA's Bureau of Agricultural Economics, compiled publications based on reports from USDA's overseas staff, U.S. consuls abroad, and data collected by the Rome-based
International Institute of AgricultureThe International Institute of Agriculture was opened in May 1908 by the King of Italy. After World War II both its assets and mandate were handed over to The Food and Agriculture Organization and its centenary will be celebrated by The Italian Government and FAO in May 2008, under the slogan "100...
.
In 1924, USDA officials Nils Olsen and Louis Guy Michael, working with Congressman
John KetchamJohn Clark Ketcham was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.Ketcham was born in Toledo, Ohio, and moved with his parents to Maple Grove, Michigan near Nashville, the same year. He attended the common schools of Barry County and high school at Nashville. He taught in rural and high schools...
, began drafting legislation to create an agricultural attaché service with diplomatic status. Though this legislation passed the House of Representatives multiple times, it did not pass the Senate until 1930, in part due to opposition from then-Commerce Secretary
Herbert HooverHerbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted government intervention under the rubric "economic...
. Hoover, however, eventually supported the legislation in order to garner support of the farm bloc during his presidential campaign. 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 June 5, 1930.
The law stipulated that the Foreign Agricultural Service consisted of the overseas officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA also created a Foreign Agricultural Service Division within the Bureau of Agricultural Economics to serve as FAS's headquarters staff in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
, naming Asher Hobson, a noted economist and political scientist, as its first head. The 1930 Act explicitly granted USDA's overseas officials diplomatic status and the right to the diplomatic title
attachéAttaché is a French term in diplomacy referring to a person who is assigned to the administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency...
. In short order, FAS posted additional staff overseas, to
MarseilleMarseille , formerly known as Massalia , is the 2nd most populous French city as well as the oldest city in France...
,
PretoriaPretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
,
BelgradeBelgrade Belgrade Belgrade (Serbian Cyrillic: Београд, Serbian Latin: Beograd (meaning "White City" in Serbian) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on two international waterways, at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where Central Europe's Pannonian Plain meets...
,
SydneySydney is the largest city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City"...
, and
Kobeis the sixth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture and a prominent port city in Japan with a population of about 1.5 million. The city is located in the Kansai region of Japan and is part of the metropolitan area...
, in addition to existing staff in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
,
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
,
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
and
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level...
. In Washington, Dr. Hobson hired a Russian émigré, Dr. Lazar Volin, as the agency's first domestically based regional analyst, to specialize on study of Russia as a competitor to U.S. agriculture.
International Trade Policy
In 1934 Congress passed the
Reciprocal Trade Agreements ActThe Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act provided for the negotiation of tariff agreements between the United States and separate nations, particularly Latin American countries. It resulted in a reduction of duties....
, which stipulated that the President must consult with the Secretary of Agriculture when negotiating
tariffA tariff is a duty imposed on goods when they are moved across a political boundary.-History:...
reductions for agricultural commodities. Secretary of Agriculture
Henry A. WallaceHenry Agard Wallace was the 33rd Vice President of the United States , the 11th Secretary of Agriculture , and the tenth Secretary of Commerce...
delegated this responsibility to the Foreign Agricultural Service Division, and thus began FAS's role in formulation and implementation of international trade policy. 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 tariff schedules were in place with 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States' largest agricultural trading partner.
This new responsibility spurred a change in field reporting from overseas offices. In order to negotiate tariff agreements, 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.
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. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
ordered all diplomatic personnel, including the agricultural attachés and commissioners, transferred to the
Department of StateThe United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, similar to foreign ministries, foreign offices, ministries of external relations, etc. in other countries...
. The Foreign Agricultural Service was abolished, and its headquarters staff was renamed the Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations (OFAR). 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.
Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations
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 CouncilThe International Wheat Council is an international organization established on March 23, 1949 at the initiative of the U.S. government for the purpose of egalitarian distribution of wheat to countries in a state of emergency. It was part of the Point Four Program announced by US President Harry...
, and began assisting Latin American countries to develop their agriculture. This latter effort was related to the need for strategic commodities as
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
loomed, as well as the need to tie South America closer to the Allies and thereby to keep
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
from gaining a foothold in the New World. During World War II OFAR analyzed food availability in both allied and enemy countries, and promoted stockpiling of 100 million
bushelA bushel is an imperial and U.S. customary unit of dry volume, equivalent in each of these systems to 4 pecks or 8 gallons. It is used for volumes of dry commodities , most often in agriculture. It is abbreviated as bsh. or bu. The name derives from the 14th century buschel or busschel, a box.-...
s (2.7 million metric tons) of wheat for feeding refugees after the anticipated end of the war.
After the war, OFAR was instrumental in carrying out land reform in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and offering agricultural technical assistance under the
Marshall PlanThe Marshall Plan was the primary plan of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger foundation for the countries of Western Europe, and repelling communism after World War II...
and the
Point Four ProgramThe Point Four Program was a program for economic aid to poor countries announced by United States President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address on January 20 1949...
. 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.
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 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.
OFAR participated actively with the Department of State in negotiating the
General Agreement on Tariffs and TradeThe General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization . GATT was formed in 1947 and lasted until 1994, when it was replaced by the World Trade Organization in 1995...
(GATT), signed in 1947 and expanded through subsequent negotiation rounds, although agriculture was not a major focus until the
Uruguay RoundThe Uruguay Round was the 8th round of multilateral trade negotiations conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , spanning from 1986-1994 and embracing 110 countries as “contracting parties”...
of negotiations. At the same time, OFAR was heavily involved in founding the
Food and Agriculture OrganizationThe is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy...
of the United Nations, with Director of Foreign Agricultural Relations Leslie A. Wheeler playing a particularly instrumental role.
FAS is Reconstituted
On March 10, 1953, Secretary of Agriculture
Ezra Taft BensonEzra Taft Benson was the thirteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1985 until his death and was United States Secretary of Agriculture for both terms of the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower.-Biography:Born on a farm in Whitney, Idaho, Benson was the oldest of...
abolished OFAR and reconstituted the Foreign Agricultural Service. In April 1954 FAS handed off national security-related technical assistance to the International Cooperation Administration (forerunner of USAID) and began to focus on foreign market development for U.S. agricultural commodities, signaling a radical shift in the agency's focus. 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 PeacePublic Law 480 also known as Food for Peace is a funding avenue by which US food can be used for overseas aid....
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.
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 ProgramThe Foreign Market Development Cooperator Program is one of the agricultural export promotion programs operated by the Foreign Agricultural Service. This program consists of joint government/agri-industry efforts to develop markets by acquainting potential foreign customers with U.S. farm products...
, and the groups themselves to be called "cooperators".
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. At the same time, the CSS Barter and Stockpiling Manager was also moved to FAS. In the post-WWII 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 as European and Asian economies recovered from the war, however, the emphasis on barter waned.
In 1969 the General Sales Manager and his staff were split off to form a separate USDA agency, the Export Marketing Service (EMS). In 1974, however, EMS was re-merged with FAS. In 1977, under pressure from the Congress, the
CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
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. In 1981 the
ReaganReagan is an Irish surame, most commonly associated with Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th President of the United States.Reagan may also refer to:* Reagan, Indiana-People with the surname:...
Administration abolished the Office of the General Sales Manager and formally restored its status as a program area of FAS. 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 servantsIn the United States, the civil service was established in 1872. The Federal Civil Service is defined as "all appointive positions in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the Government of the United States, except positions in the uniformed services." . In the early 19th century,...
or being grandfathered into the
Foreign ServiceThe United States Foreign Service is the primary personnel system within the Diplomatic Service of the United States government, under the aegis of the Department of State. The personnel system was first created under the Foreign Service Act to serve as the principal personnel system under which...
. Since that time the vast majority of agricultural officers overseas, just like State Department officials overseas, have been Foreign Service Officers. Since 1939, 11 former agricultural attachés have been confirmed as American
AmbassadorAn ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents their country. They are usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization, to serve as the official representative of their country....
s.
Major Events
Trade tensions with the
European Economic CommunityThe European Economic Community was an international organisation that existed between 1958 and 1993 which was created to bring about economic integration between Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.It was...
(EEC) boiled over in 1962 with the first
Chicken WarThe Chicken Tax — actually a 25% tax on potato starch, dextrin, brandy, and light trucks — was a 1963 response by the U.S. under President Lyndon B. Johnson to tariffs placed by France and West Germany on importation of U.S. chicken...
, 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'sJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
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." This "Chicken War" proved to be a precursor to numerous other, similar trade disputes, including the "Poultry War" with
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
of 2002, during which Russia retaliated against the U.S. raising 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 U.S.S.R. resulted in the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
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 U.S.S.R. had locked in supplies at low, subsidized prices, leaving other importers and consumers scrambling for what was left at significantly higher prices. This event, known as the "Great Grain Robbery", led to creation in the Foreign Agricultural Service of a satellite imagery unit for
remote sensingRemote sensing is the small or large-scale acquisition of information of an object or phenomenon, by the use of either recording or real-time sensing device that are wireless, or not in physical or intimate contact with the object...
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 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 Robert DoleRobert Joseph "Bob" Dole is an attorney and retired United States Senator from Kansas from 1969–1996, serving part of that time as United States Senate Majority Leader, where he set a record as the longest-serving Republican leader. He was his party's 1996 presidential nominee but lost the...
of
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
, 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 OrganizationThe World Trade Organization is an international organization designed by its founders to supervise and liberalize international capital trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, replacing the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade , which...
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.
Current Food Aid Authorities
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 programThe Food for Progress Program is a food aid program originally authorized by the Food Security Act of 1985 to provide commodities on credit terms or on a grant basis to developing countries and emerging democracies to assist in the introduction of elements of free enterprise into the countries’...
, 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 Food for Education Program. Formally known as the McGovern/Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program in honor of Senator Dole and Senator
George McGovernGeorge Stanley McGovern is a former United States Representative, Senator, and Democratic presidential nominee. McGovern lost the 1972 presidential election in a landslide to Richard Nixon. As a decorated World War II combat veteran, McGovern was known for his opposition to the Vietnam...
, 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 CorporationThe Commodity Credit Corporation is a wholly owned government corporation created in 1933 to "stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices"...
’s borrowing authority.
FAS' Return to International Development and National Security
After a nine-year hiatus from international agricultural development work at USDA, on July 12, 1963, Secretary
Orville FreemanOrville Lothrop Freeman was an American Democratic politician who served as the 29th Governor of Minnesota from January 5, 1955 to January 2, 1961, and as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1961 to 1969 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson...
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. Dr. Matthew Drosdoff was hired effective February 19, 1964, to be the first permanent Administrator of IADS. In March 1969, after the
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States ....
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 ServiceThe Economic Research Service is the main source of economic information and research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Located in Washington D.C., the mission of ERS is to inform and enhance public and private decision-making on economic and policy issues related to agriculture, food,...
, where it became the Foreign Development Division.
In 1977, Dr. 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. Dr. West's proposal was accepted and thus OICD was created, with responsibility for technical assistance, training, foreign currency-funded research, and international organization liaison. In 1994 USDA's Office of International Cooperation and Development was merged with FAS, bringing technical assistance back to FAS after a roughly 40-year absence.
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. This marked FAS' return to national security work. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has pledged to continue and to expand that work. FAS' role in national security work, however, remains controversial.
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". 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. 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 |
ditto |
| Leslie A. Wheeler |
1938-1939 |
Foreign Agricultural Service |
| Leslie A. Wheeler |
1939-1948 |
Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations |
| Dennis A. Fitzgerald |
1948-1949 |
ditto |
| Fred J. Rossiter |
1949 |
ditto |
| Stanley Andrews |
1949-1952 |
ditto |
| Francis A. Flood |
1952 |
ditto |
| John J. Haggerty |
1952-1953 |
ditto |
| Francis R. Wilcox |
1953 |
ditto |
| Romeo Ennis Short |
1953 |
Foreign Agricultural Service |
| Clayton E. Whipple |
1953-1954 |
ditto |
| William G. Lodwick |
1954-1955 |
ditto |
| Gwynn Garnett |
1955-1958 |
ditto |
| Maxwell S. Myers |
1958-1961 |
ditto |
| Robert C. Tetro |
1961-1962 |
ditto |
| Raymond A. Ioanes |
1962-1973 |
ditto |
| David L. Hume |
1973-1977 |
ditto |
| Thomas R. Hughes |
1977-1981 |
ditto |
| Richard A. Smith |
1981-1985 |
ditto |
| Thomas O. Kay |
1985-1989 |
ditto |
| Rolland E. Anderson |
1989-1991 |
ditto |
| Duane C. Acker |
1991-1992 |
ditto |
| Stephen L. Censky |
1992-1993 |
ditto |
| Richard B. Schroeter |
1993-1994 |
ditto |
| August Schumacher, Jr. |
1994-1997 |
ditto |
| Lon S. Hatamiya |
1997-1999 |
ditto |
| Timothy J. Galvin |
1999-2001 |
ditto |
| Mattie R. Sharpless |
2001 |
ditto |
| Mary T. Chambliss |
2001-2002 |
ditto |
| A. Ellen Terpstra |
2002-2006 |
ditto |
| Michael W. Yost |
2006-2009 |
ditto |
| Suzanne K. Hale |
2009 |
ditto |
| Michael V. Michener |
2009- |
ditto |
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. |
circa 1966 |
ditto |
| George Parks |
1966-1969 |
ditto |
| Clifford Pulvermacher |
1969-1972 |
Export Marketing Service |
| Laurel Meade |
1972-1974 |
ditto |
| George S. Shanklin |
1974-1976 |
Foreign Agricultural Service |
| James Hutchinson |
1976-1977 |
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 Brewer |
2009- |
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. BrownLester R. Brown is an American environmentalist, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C...
|
1966-1969 |
ditto |
| Quentin West |
1969-1972 |
Foreign Economic Development Service |
| Quentin West |
1972-1977 |
Foreign Development Division, Economic Research ServiceThe Economic Research Service is the main source of economic information and research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Located in Washington D.C., the mission of ERS is to inform and enhance public and private decision-making on economic and policy issues related to agriculture, food,...
|
| Quentin West |
1977-1980 |
Office of International Cooperation and Development |
| Ruth Zagorin |
1980-1981 |
ditto |
| Joan S. Wallace |
1981-1989 |
ditto |
| Robert Shirley |
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 Lester DeWitt Mallory was an American diplomat.Mallory was born in Houlton, Maine. He received a bachelor of science in agriculture in 1927 and a master of science in agriculture degree in 1929 from the University of British Columbia. Mallory earned a Ph.D...
|
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 HabibPhilip Charles Habib was a Lebanese-American career diplomat known for work in Vietnam, South Korea and the Middle East...
|
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 FreedomThe Presidential Medal of Freedom is a decoration bestowed by the President of the United States and is, along with theequivalent Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress, the highest civilian award in the U.S...
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- |
| Asif J. Chaudhry |
agricultural attaché, Warsaw; senior agricultural attaché, counselor, and acting minister-counselor, Moscow; agricultural minister-counselor, Cairo |
Moldova 2008- |
U.S. Government Publications and Documents (chronological order)
(see page 10 for report of posting to London of Edmund Moffat)
Oral Histories On Line
(use the search engine for a "Full Text" search on "Foreign Agricultural Service" in quotes)
See also
- Agricultural Trade Act of 1978
The the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 directed the establishment of trade offices in major centers of commerce throughout the world. The agricultural trade offices are operated by the Foreign Agricultural Service to develop, maintain, and expand international markets for U.S...
- Commodity Credit Corporation
The Commodity Credit Corporation is a wholly owned government corporation created in 1933 to "stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices"...
- Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services
- United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
- United States Foreign Service
The United States Foreign Service is the primary personnel system within the Diplomatic Service of the United States government, under the aegis of the Department of State. The personnel system was first created under the Foreign Service Act to serve as the principal personnel system under which...