Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry, or New York–based financial interests. Anchored by Wall Street, New York City has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, the city is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Several other major exchanges have or had headquarters in the Wall Street area, including the New York Mercantile Exchange, the New York Board of Trade, the former American Stock Exchange. There are varying accounts about. A accepted version is that the name of the street was derived from a wall on the northern boundary of the New Amsterdam settlement, built to protect against Native Americans and the British.
A conflicting explanation is that Wall Street was named after Walloons—the Dutch name for a Walloon is Waal. Among the first settlers that embarked on the ship "Nieu Nederlandt" in 1624 were 30 Walloon families. While the Dutch word "wal" can be translated as "rampart", it only appeared as "de Walstraat" on English maps of New Amsterdam; however some English maps show the name as Waal Straat, not as Wal Straat. According to one version of the story: The red people from Manhattan Island crossed to the mainland, where a treaty was made with the Dutch, the place was therefore called the Pipe of Peace, in their language, Hoboken, but soon after that, the Dutch governor, sent his men out there one night and massacred the entire population. Few of them escaped, but they spread the story of what had been done, this did much to antagonize all the remaining tribes against all the white settlers. Shortly after, Nieuw Amsterdam erected a double palisade for defense against its now enraged red neighbors, this remained for some time the northern limit of the Dutch city.
The space between the former walls is now called Wall Street, its spirit is still that of a bulwark against the people. In the 1640s basic picket and plank fences denoted residences in the colony. On behalf of the Dutch West India Company, Peter Stuyvesant, using both African slaves and white colonists, collaborated with the city government in the construction of a more substantial fortification, a strengthened 12-foot wall. In 1685, surveyors laid out Wall Street along the lines of the original stockade; the wall started at Pearl Street, the shoreline at that time, crossing the Indian path Broadway and ending at the other shoreline, where it took a turn south and ran along the shore until it ended at the old fort. In these early days, local merchants and traders would gather at disparate spots to buy and sell shares and bonds, over time divided themselves into two classes—auctioneers and dealers. Wall Street was the marketplace where owners could hire out their slaves by the day or week; the rampart was removed in 1699 and a new City Hall built at Wall and Nassau in 1700.
Slavery was introduced to Manhattan in 1626, but it was not until December 13, 1711, that the New York City Common Council made Wall Street the city's first official slave market for the sale and rental of enslaved Africans and Indians. The slave market operated from 1711 to 1762 at the corner of Pearl Streets, it was a wooden structure with a roof and open sides, although walls may have been added over the years and could hold 50 men. The city directly benefited from the sale of slaves by implementing taxes on every person, bought and sold there. In the late 18th century there was a buttonwood tree at the foot of Wall Street under which traders and speculators would gather to trade securities; the benefit was being in proximity to each other. In 1792, traders formalized their association with the Buttonwood Agreement, the origin of the New York Stock Exchange; the idea of the agreement was to make the market more "structured" and "without the manipulative auctions", with a commission structure.
Persons signing the agreement agreed to charge each other a standard commission rate. In 1789 Wall Street was the scene of the United States' first presidential inauguration when George Washington took the oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall on April 30, 1789; this was the location of the passing of the Bill Of Rights. Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury secretary and "architect of the early United States financial system," is buried in the cemetery of Trinity Church, as is Robert Fulton famed for his steamboats. In the first few decades, both residences and businesses occupied the area, but business predominated. "There are old stories of people's houses being surrounded by the clamor of business and trade and the owners complaining that they can't get anything done," according to a historian named Burrows. The opening of the Erie Canal in the early 19th century meant a huge boom in business for New York City, since it was the only major eastern seaport which had direct access by inland waterways to ports on the Great Lakes.
Wall Street became the "money capital of America". Historian Charles R. Geisst suggested that there has been a "tug-of-war" between business interests on Wall Street and authorities in Washington, D. C. the capital of the United States by then. During the 19th c
Journalist
A journalist is a person who collects, writes, or distributes news or other current information to the public. A journalist's work is called journalism. A journalist can specialize in certain issues. However, most journalists tend to specialize, by cooperating with other journalists, produce journals that span many topics. For example, a sports journalist covers news within the world of sports, but this journalist may be a part of a newspaper that covers many different topics. A reporter is a type of journalist who researches and reports on information in order to present in sources, conduct interviews, engage in research, make reports; the information-gathering part of a journalist's job is sometimes called reporting, in contrast to the production part of the job such as writing articles. Reporters may split their time between working in a newsroom and going out to witness events or interviewing people. Reporters may be assigned a specific area of coverage. Depending on the context, the term journalist may include various types of editors, editorial writers and visual journalists, such as photojournalists.
Journalism has developed a variety of standards. While objectivity and a lack of bias are of primary concern and importance, more liberal types of journalism, such as advocacy journalism and activism, intentionally adopt a non-objective viewpoint; this has become more prevalent with the advent of social media and blogs, as well as other platforms that are used to manipulate or sway social and political opinions and policies. These platforms project extreme bias, as "sources" are not always held accountable or considered necessary in order to produce a written, televised, or otherwise "published" end product. Matthew C. Nisbet, who has written on science communication, has defined a "knowledge journalist" as a public intellectual who, like Walter Lippmann, David Brooks, Fareed Zakaria, Naomi Klein, Michael Pollan, Thomas Friedman, Andrew Revkin, sees their role as researching complicated issues of fact or science which most laymen would not have the time or access to information to research themselves communicating an accurate and understandable version to the public as a teacher and policy advisor.
In his best-known books, Public Opinion and The Phantom Public, Lippmann argued that most individuals lacked the capacity and motivation to follow and analyze news of the many complex policy questions that troubled society. Nor did they directly experience most social problems, or have direct access to expert insights; these limitations were made worse by a news media that tended to over-simplify issues and to reinforce stereotypes, partisan viewpoints, prejudices. As a consequence, Lippmann believed that the public needed journalists like himself who could serve as expert analysts, guiding “citizens to a deeper understanding of what was important.” In 2018, the United States Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook reported that employment for the category, "reporters and broadcast news analysts," will decline 9 percent between 2016 and 2026. Journalists sometimes expose themselves to danger when reporting in areas of armed conflict or in states that do not respect the freedom of the press.
Organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders publish reports on press freedom and advocate for journalistic freedom. As of November 2011, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 887 journalists have been killed worldwide since 1992 by murder, crossfire or combat, or on dangerous assignment; the "ten deadliest countries" for journalists since 1992 have been Iraq, Russia, Mexico, Pakistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that as of December 1, 2010, 145 journalists were jailed worldwide for journalistic activities. Current numbers are higher; the ten countries with the largest number of currently-imprisoned journalists are Turkey, Iran, Burma, Vietnam, Cuba and Sudan. Apart from the physical harm, journalists are harmed psychologically; this applies to war reporters, but their editorial offices at home do not know how to deal appropriately with the reporters they expose to danger. Hence, a systematic and sustainable way of psychological support for traumatized journalists is needed.
However, only little and fragmented support programs exist so far. The Newseum in Washington, D. C. is home to the Journalists Memorial, which lists the names of over 2,100 journalists from around the world who were killed in the line of duty. The relationship between a professional journalist and a source can be rather complex, a source can sometimes impact the direction of the article written by the journalist; the article'A Compromised Fourth Estate' uses Herbert Gans' metaphor to capture their relationship. He uses a dance metaphor'The Tango' to illustrate the co-operative nature of their interactions "It takes two to tango". Herbert suggests that the source leads but journalists object to this notion for two reasons: It signals source supremacy in news making, it offends journalists' professional culture, which emphasizes editorial autonomy. This dance metaphor helps showcase consensus within the relationship but the article describe the common relation between the two "A relationship with sources, too cozy is compromising of journalists’ integrity and risks becoming collusive.
Journalists have favored a
Apple
An apple is a sweet, edible fruit produced by an apple tree. Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most grown species in the genus Malus; the tree originated in Central Asia, where Malus sieversii, is still found today. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe and were brought to North America by European colonists. Apples have religious and mythological significance in many cultures, including Norse and European Christian traditions. Apple trees are large. Apple cultivars are propagated by grafting onto rootstocks, which control the size of the resulting tree. There are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples, resulting in a range of desired characteristics. Different cultivars are bred for various tastes and use, including cooking, eating raw and cider production. Trees and fruit are prone to a number of fungal and pest problems, which can be controlled by a number of organic and non-organic means. In 2010, the fruit's genome was sequenced as part of research on disease control and selective breeding in apple production.
Worldwide production of apples in 2017 was 83.1 million tonnes, with China accounting for 49.8% of the total. The apple is a deciduous tree standing 6 to 15 ft tall in cultivation and up to 30 ft in the wild; when cultivated, the size and branch density are determined by rootstock selection and trimming method. The leaves are alternately arranged dark green-colored simple ovals with serrated margins and downy undersides. Blossoms are produced in spring with the budding of the leaves and are produced on spurs and some long shoots; the 3 to 4 cm flowers are white with a pink tinge that fades, five petaled, with an inflorescence consisting of a cyme with 4–6 flowers. The central flower of the inflorescence is called the "king bloom"; the fruit matures in late summer or autumn, cultivars exist in a wide range of sizes. Commercial growers aim to produce an apple, 2 3⁄4 to 3 1⁄4 in in diameter, due to market preference; some consumers those in Japan, prefer a larger apple, while apples below 2 1⁄4 in are used for making juice and have little fresh market value.
The skin of ripe apples is red, green, pink, or russetted, though many bi- or tri-colored cultivars may be found. The skin may be wholly or russeted i.e. rough and brown. The skin is covered in a protective layer of epicuticular wax; the exocarp is pale yellowish-white, though pink or yellow exocarps occur. The original wild ancestor of Malus pumila was Malus sieversii, found growing wild in the mountains of Central Asia in southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang, China. Cultivation of the species, most beginning on the forested flanks of the Tian Shan mountains, progressed over a long period of time and permitted secondary introgression of genes from other species into the open-pollinated seeds. Significant exchange with Malus sylvestris, the crabapple, resulted in current populations of apples being more related to crabapples than to the more morphologically similar progenitor Malus sieversii. In strains without recent admixture the contribution of the latter predominates. In 2010, an Italian-led consortium announced they had sequenced the complete genome of the apple in collaboration with horticultural genomicists at Washington State University, using'Golden Delicious'.
It had about 57,000 genes, the highest number of any plant genome studied to date and more genes than the human genome. This new understanding of the apple genome will help scientists identify genes and gene variants that contribute to resistance to disease and drought, other desirable characteristics. Understanding the genes behind these characteristics will help scientists perform more knowledgeable selective breeding; the genome sequence provided proof that Malus sieversii was the wild ancestor of the domestic apple—an issue, long-debated in the scientific community. The center of diversity of the genus Malus is in eastern present-day Turkey; the apple tree may have been the earliest tree that humans cultivated, growers have improved its fruits through selection over thousands of years. Alexander the Great is credited with finding dwarfed apples in Kazakhstan in 328 BCE. Winter apples, picked in late autumn and stored just above freezing, have been an important food in Asia and Europe for millennia.
Of the many Old World plants that the Spanish introduced to Chiloé Archipelago in the 16th century, apple trees became well adapted. Apples were introduced to North America by colonists in the 17th century, the first apple orchard on the North American continent was planted in Boston by Reverend William Blaxton in 1625; the only apples native to North America are crab apples, which were once called "common apples". Apple cultivars brought as seed from Europe were spread along Native American trade routes, as well as being cultivated on colonial farms. An 1845 United States apples nursery catalogue sold 350 of the "best" cultivars, showing the proliferation of new North American cultivars by the early 19th century. In the 20th century, irrigation projects in Eastern Washington began and allowed the development of the multibillion-dollar fruit industry, of which the apple is the leading product; until the 20th century, farmers stored apples in frostproof cellars during the winter for their own use or for sale.
Improved transportation of fresh apples by train and road replaced the necessity for storage. Controlled atmosphere facilities are used to keep apples fresh year-round. Controlled atmosphere facilit
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the capital city and most populous municipality of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 854,047 within the city proper, 1,357,675 in the urban area and 2,410,960 in the metropolitan area; the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country but is not its capital, Haarlem. The Amsterdam metropolitan area comprises much of the northern part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe, which has a population of 8.1 million. Amsterdam's name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the city's origin around a dam in the river Amstel. Originating as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world during the Dutch Golden Age, as a result of its innovative developments in trade. During that time, the city was the leading centre for trade. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, many new neighbourhoods and suburbs were planned and built.
The 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Since the annexation of the municipality of Sloten in 1921 by the municipality of Amsterdam, the oldest historic part of the city lies in Sloten, dating to the 9th century; as the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered an alpha- world city by the Globalization and World Cities study group. The city is the cultural capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, including Philips, AkzoNobel, TomTom and ING. Many of the world's largest companies are based in Amsterdam or established their European headquarters in the city, such as leading technology companies Uber and Tesla. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment and infrastructure by Mercer; the city was ranked 4th place globally as top tech hub in the Savills Tech Cities 2019 report, 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009.
The Port of Amsterdam to this day remains the second in the country, the fifth largest seaport in Europe. Famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, philosopher Baruch Spinoza; the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city centre. Amsterdam's main attractions include its historic canals, the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Hermitage Amsterdam, the Anne Frank House, the Scheepvaartmuseum, the Amsterdam Museum, the Heineken Experience, the Royal Palace of Amsterdam, Natura Artis Magistra, Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam, NEMO, the red-light district and many cannabis coffee shops, they draw more than 5 million international visitors annually. The city is well known for its nightlife and festival activity, it is one of the world's most multicultural cities, with at least 177 nationalities represented. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river and a dam across it, giving its name to the village: "Aemstelredamme".
The earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated 27 October 1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges and dams; the certificate describes the inhabitants. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam. Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century; this does not mean that there was a settlement since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat, for use as fuel. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306. From the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished from trade with the Hanseatic League. In 1345, an alleged Eucharistic miracle in the Kalverstraat rendered the city an important place of pilgrimage until the adoption of the Protestant faith.
The Miracle devotion was kept alive. In the 19th century after the jubilee of 1845, the devotion was revitalized and became an important national point of reference for Dutch Catholics; the Stille Omgang—a silent walk or procession in civil attire—is the expression of the pilgrimage within the Protestant Netherlands since the late 19th century. In the heyday of the Silent Walk, up to 90,000 pilgrims came to Amsterdam. In the 21st century this has reduced to about 5000. In the 16th century, the Dutch rebelled against Philip II of his successors; the main reasons for the uprising were the imposition of new taxes, the tenth penny, the religious persecution of Protestants by the newly introduced Inquisition. The revolt escalated into the Eighty Years' War, which led to Dutch independence. Pushed by Dutch Revolt leader William the Silent, the Dutch Republic became known for its relative religious tolerance. Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, Huguenots from France, prosperous merchants and printers from Flanders, economic and religious refugees
American Jews
American Jews, or Jewish Americans, are Americans who are Jews, whether by religion, ethnicity or nationality. The current Jewish community in the United States consists of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Jewish populations of Central and Eastern Europe and comprise about 90-95% of the American Jewish population. Most American Ashkenazim are US-born, with a dwindling number of now elderly earlier immigrants, as well as some more recent foreign-born immigrants. During the colonial era, prior to the mass immigration of Ashkenazim and Portuguese Jews represented the bulk of America's small Jewish population, while their descendants are a minority today, they along with an array of other Jewish communities represented the remainder of American Jews, including other more recent Sephardic Jews, Mizrahi Jews, various other ethnically Jewish communities, as well as a smaller number of converts to Judaism; the American Jewish community manifests a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions, encompassing the full spectrum of Jewish religious observance.
Depending on religious definitions and varying population data, the United States has the largest or second largest Jewish community in the world, after Israel. In 2012, the American Jewish population was estimated at between 5.5 and 8 million, depending on the definition of the term, which constitutes between 1.7% and 2.6% of the total U. S. population. Jews have been present in the Thirteen Colonies since the mid-17th century. However, they were small in number, with at most 200 to 300 having arrived by 1700; those early arrivers were Sephardic Jewish immigrants, of Western Sephardic ancestry, but by 1720 Ashkenazi Jews from Central and Eastern Europe predominated. The English Plantation Act 1740 for the first time permitted Jews to become British citizens and emigrate to the colonies. Despite some being denied the ability to vote or hold office in local jurisdictions, Sephardic Jews became active in community affairs in the 1790s, after achieving political equality in the five states where they were most numerous.
Until about 1830, South Carolina had more Jews than anywhere else in North America. Large-scale Jewish immigration commenced in the 19th century, when, by mid-century, many German Jews had arrived, migrating to the United States in large numbers due to antisemitic laws and restrictions in their countries of birth, they became merchants and shop-owners. There were 250,000 Jews in the United States by 1880, many of them being the educated, secular, German Jews, although a minority population of the older Sephardic Jewish families remained influential. Jewish migration to the United States increased in the early 1880s, as a result of persecution and economic difficulties in parts of Eastern Europe. Most of these new immigrants were Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews, most of whom arrived from the poor diaspora communities of the Russian Empire and the Pale of Settlement, located in modern-day Poland, Belarus and Moldova. During the same period, great numbers of Ashkenazi Jews arrived from Galicia, at that time the most impoverished region of the Austro-Hungarian empire with a heavy Jewish urban population, driven out by economic reasons.
Many Jews emigrated from Romania. Over 2,000,000 Jews landed between the late 19th century and 1924, when the Immigration Act of 1924 restricted immigration. Most settled in the New York metropolitan area, establishing the world's major concentrations of Jewish population. In 1915 the circulation of the daily Yiddish newspapers was half a million in New York City alone, 600,000 nationally. In addition thousands more subscribed to the numerous weekly papers and the many magazines. At the beginning of the 20th century, these newly arrived Jews built support networks consisting of many small synagogues and Landsmanshaften for Jews from the same town or village. American Jewish writers of the time urged assimilation and integration into the wider American culture, Jews became part of American life. 500,000 American Jews fought in World War II, after the war younger families joined the new trend of suburbanization. There, Jews became assimilated and demonstrated rising intermarriage; the suburbs facilitated the formation of new centers, as Jewish school enrollment more than doubled between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s, while synagogue affiliation jumped from 20% in 1930 to 60% in 1960.
More recent waves of Jewish emigration from Russia and other regions have joined the mainstream American Jewish community. Americans of Jewish descent have been disproportionately successful in many fields and aspects over the years; the Jewish community in America has gone from a lower class minority, with most studies putting upwards of 80% as manual factory laborers prior to World War I and with the majority of fields barred to them, to the consistent richest or second richest ethnicity in America for the past 40 years in terms of average annual salary, with high concentrations in academia and other fields, today have the highest per capita income of any ethnic group in the United States, at around double the average income of non-Jewish Americans. In 2016, Modern Orthodox Jews had a median household income of $158,000, while Open Orthodox Jews had a median household income at $185,000. Scholars debate whether the favorable historical experience for Jews in the United States has been such a unique experience as to validate American exceptionalism.
K
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the direct manipulation of an organism's genes using biotechnology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including the transfer of genes within and across species boundaries to produce improved or novel organisms. New DNA is obtained by either isolating and copying the genetic material of interest using recombinant DNA methods or by artificially synthesising the DNA. A construct is created and used to insert this DNA into the host organism; the first recombinant DNA molecule was made by Paul Berg in 1972 by combining DNA from the monkey virus SV40 with the lambda virus. As well as inserting genes, the process can be used to remove, or "knock out", genes; the new DNA can be targeted to a specific part of the genome. An organism, generated through genetic engineering is considered to be genetically modified and the resulting entity is a genetically modified organism; the first GMO was a bacterium generated by Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen in 1973.
Rudolf Jaenisch created the first GM animal when he inserted foreign DNA into a mouse in 1974. The first company to focus on genetic engineering, was founded in 1976 and started the production of human proteins. Genetically engineered human insulin was produced in 1978 and insulin-producing bacteria were commercialised in 1982. Genetically modified food has been sold with the release of the Flavr Savr tomato; the Flavr Savr was engineered to have a longer shelf life, but most current GM crops are modified to increase resistance to insects and herbicides. GloFish, the first GMO designed as a pet, was sold in the United States in December 2003. In 2016 salmon modified with a growth hormone were sold. Genetic engineering has been applied in numerous fields including research, industrial biotechnology and agriculture. In research GMOs are used to study gene function and expression through loss of function, gain of function and expression experiments. By knocking out genes responsible for certain conditions it is possible to create animal model organisms of human diseases.
As well as producing hormones and other drugs genetic engineering has the potential to cure genetic diseases through gene therapy. The same techniques that are used to produce drugs can have industrial applications such as producing enzymes for laundry detergent and other products; the rise of commercialised genetically modified crops has provided economic benefit to farmers in many different countries, but has been the source of most of the controversy surrounding the technology. This has been present since its early use. Although there is a scientific consensus that available food derived from GM crops poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food, GM food safety is a leading concern with critics. Gene flow, impact on non-target organisms, control of the food supply and intellectual property rights have been raised as potential issues; these concerns have led to the development of a regulatory framework, which started in 1975. It has led to an international treaty, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, adopted in 2000.
Individual countries have developed their own regulatory systems regarding GMOs, with the most marked differences occurring between the US and Europe. Genetic engineering is a process that alters the genetic structure of an organism by either removing or introducing DNA. Unlike traditional animal and plant breeding, which involves doing multiple crosses and selecting for the organism with the desired phenotype, genetic engineering takes the gene directly from one organism and inserts it in the other; this is much faster, can be used to insert any genes from any organism and prevents other undesirable genes from being added. Genetic engineering could fix severe genetic disorders in humans by replacing the defective gene with a functioning one, it is an important tool in research. Drugs and other products have been harvested from organisms engineered to produce them. Crops have been developed that aid food security by increasing yield, nutritional value and tolerance to environmental stresses; the DNA can be introduced directly into the host organism or into a cell, fused or hybridised with the host.
This relies on recombinant nucleic acid techniques to form new combinations of heritable genetic material followed by the incorporation of that material either indirectly through a vector system or directly through micro-injection, macro-injection or micro-encapsulation. Genetic engineering does not include traditional breeding, in vitro fertilisation, induction of polyploidy and cell fusion techniques that do not use recombinant nucleic acids or a genetically modified organism in the process. However, some broad definitions of genetic engineering include selective breeding. Cloning and stem cell research, although not considered genetic engineering, are related and genetic engineering can be used within them. Synthetic biology is an emerging discipline that takes genetic engineering a step further by introducing artificially synthesised material into an organism. Plants, animals or micro organisms that have been changed through genetic engineering are termed genetically modified organisms or GMOs.
If genetic material from another species is added to the host, the resulting organism is called transgenic. If genetic material from the same species or a species that can breed with the host is used the resulting organism is called cisgenic. If genetic engineering is used to r
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture known as the Agriculture Department, is the U. S. federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming and food. It aims to meet the needs of farmers and ranchers, promote agricultural trade and production, work to assure food safety, protect natural resources, foster rural communities and end hunger in the United States and internationally. 80% of the USDA's $141 billion budget goes to the Food and Nutrition Service program. The largest component of the FNS budget is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the cornerstone of USDA's nutrition assistance; the current Secretary of Agriculture is Sonny Perdue. Many of the programs concerned with the distribution of food and nutrition to people of America and providing nourishment as well as nutrition education to those in need are run and operated under the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. Activities in this program include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides healthy food to over 40 million low-income and homeless people each month.
USDA is a member of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, where it is committed to working with other agencies to ensure these mainstream benefits are accessed by those experiencing homelessness. The USDA is concerned with assisting farmers and food producers with the sale of crops and food on both the domestic and world markets, it plays a role in overseas aid programs by providing surplus foods to developing countries. This aid can go through USAID, foreign governments, international bodies such as World Food Program, or approved nonprofits; the Agricultural Act of 1949, section 416 and Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 known as Food for Peace, provides the legal basis of such actions. The USDA is a partner of the World Cocoa Foundation. Early in its history, the economy of the United States was agrarian. Officials in the federal government had long sought new and improved varieties of seeds and animals for import into the United States. In 1837 Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, a Yale-educated attorney interested in improving agriculture, became Commissioner of Patents, a position within the Department of State.
He began collecting and distributing new varieties of seeds and plants through members of the Congress and agricultural societies. In 1839, Congress established the Agricultural Division within the Patent Office and allotted $1,000 for "the collection of agricultural statistics and other agricultural purposes." Ellsworth's interest in aiding agriculture was evident in his annual reports that called for a public depository to preserve and distribute the new seeds and plants, a clerk to collect agricultural statistics, statewide reports about crops in different regions, the application of chemistry to agriculture. Ellsworth was called the "Father of the Department of Agriculture."In 1849, the Patent Office was transferred to the newly created Department of the Interior. In the ensuing years, agitation for a separate bureau of agriculture within the department or a separate department devoted to agriculture kept recurring. On May 15, 1862, Abraham Lincoln established the independent Department of Agriculture to be headed by a commissioner without Cabinet status, the agriculturalist Isaac Newton was appointed to be the first such commissioner.
Lincoln called it the "people's department." In 1868, the Department moved into the new Department of Agriculture Building in Washington, D. C. designed by famed DC architect Adolf Cluss. Located on Reservation No.2 on the National Mall between 12th Street and 14th SW, the Department had offices for its staff and the entire width of the Mall up to B Street NW to plant and experiment with plants. In the 1880s, varied advocacy groups were lobbying for Cabinet representation. Business interests sought a Department of Commerce and Industry, farmers tried to raise the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet rank. In 1887, the House of Representatives and Senate passed bills giving Cabinet status to the Department of Agriculture and Labor, but the bill was defeated in conference committee after farm interests objected to the addition of labor. On February 9, 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill into law elevating the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet level. In 1887, the Hatch Act provided for the federal funding of agricultural experiment stations in each state.
The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 funded cooperative extension services in each state to teach agriculture, home economics, other subjects to the public. With these and similar provisions, the USDA reached out to every county of every state. During the Great Depression, farming remained a common way of life for millions of Americans; the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Home Economics, established in 1923, published shopping advice and recipes to stretch family budgets and make food go farther. USDA helped ensure that food continued to be produced and distributed to those who needed it, assisted with loans for small landowners, contributed to the education of the rural youth, it was revealed on August 27th, 2018 that the U. S. Department of Agriculture would be providing U. S. farmers with a farm aid package, which will total $4.7 billion in direct payments to American farmers. This package is meant to offset the losses farmers are expected to incur from retaliatory tariffs placed on American exports during the Trump tariffs.
The Department of Agriculture was authorized a budget for Fiscal Year 2015 of $139.7 billion. The budget authorization is broken down as follows: Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service Animal Damage Control (
