On May 15, 1862, the Organic Act established the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and directed its commissioner to collect new and valuable seed and plants, and to distribute them among agriculturalists. Untold numbers of foreign microbes begin entering the U.S.

President Abraham Lincoln appointed a chemist, Charles M. Wetherill, to serve in the new Department of Agriculture. This was the beginning of the Bureau of Chemistry, the predecessor of the Food and Drug Administration.

Two and one-half years later, in what would be his final annual message to the Congress; Lincoln called USDA “The People’s Department.” At that time, about half of all Americans lived on farms, compared with about 2 percent today.