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.