United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and production, works to assure food safety, protects natural resources, fosters rural communities and works to end hunger in the United States and internationally. It is headed by the secretary of agriculture, who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet. The current secretary is Tom Vilsack, who has served since February 24, 2021.
Harvey Washington Wiley, Chief Chemist of the Department of Agriculture's Division of Chemistry (third from the right) with his staff in 1883
The first Department of Agriculture Building on the National Mall around 1895
The Jamie L. Whitten Building in Washington D.C. is the current USDA headquarters.
A nutrition researcher considers canned peas.
Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming, conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of agricultural land area. It is characterized by a low fallow ratio, higher use of inputs such as capital, labour, agrochemicals and water, and higher crop yields per unit land area.
Intensive farming of wheat in Lund, Sweden
Early 20th-century image of a tractor ploughing an alfalfa field
Cow in enclosed pasture eating grass through wire fence
A commercial chicken house raising broiler pullets for meat