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| On This Day In History... |
On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln established the United States Department of Agriculture—or as he referred to it—the "People's Department."
Back then, more than 50 percent of Americans lived on the farm. Today, only two percent of the population calls it home, but the People's Department remains and continues to serve the best interest of every American.
Among his first acts as president, Lincoln wanted to address the need for our country's economic interests to be protected. He saw agriculture for what it was: The backbone of our economy and the industry that would eventually allow the United States to grow from a young and wild frontier, into a major player on the world stage.
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Farmer Profile  Beth ClantonI met many wonderful people on my journey through the West Texas farmlands, but few as remarkable as Beth Clanton. Eleven years ago, Clanton was a second grade school teacher in Seminole, Texas. Her husband was a peanut and cotton farmer, and together, they had two daughters... Farmer Profile  Pat BenedictTo his friends and family, Pat Benedict is a soft-spoken farmer from a small town in Minnesota. Few are even aware Benedict is an icon of modern agriculture. In 1978, he appeared on the cover of TIME magazine for an article dubbed "The New U.S. Farmer." At the time, American agriculture was undergoing major change, and the article sought to depict the industry's sweeping transformations...
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