Originally the USDA (United State Department of Agriculture was created to attain new and improved varieties of seeds, plants and animals for importation to the United States. In 1836 Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, an attorney interested in improving agriculture, became Commissioner of Patents, a position within the Department of State. He soon began collecting and distributing new varieties of seeds and plants through members of the Congress and agricultural societies.
In 1839, Congress created the Agricultural Division within the Patent Office for the collection of agricultural statistics and other agricultural purposes.
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. The USDA was created by Abraham Lincoln in order to help out the United States economy.
This agency grew like topsy, with the main objective to assist the farmer, and protect the safety of the consumer from contaminated food or known hazardous vegetation or tainted/diseased livestock .
Unfortunately, as the elected representatives were corrupted by the special interest of big corporate interests and their banking cohorts, the emphasis shifted from assistance for the farmers and the individual, to the control of the farmer and the draconian controls on the inalienable rights and freedoms of the individual by government banning of certain natural supplements and nutritional products.
Since natural supplements and products can’t be patented the big corporate interests are using government force to eliminate the competition from the proponents of natural products in favor of the patented GMO foods and pharmaceutical products.
