V.P. VOICE: FAS ■ BY HENRY SCHMICK
Mission Cleavage
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In the midst of our current “re-envisioning” exercise, it is useful to reflect on the mission adjustments FAS has made over the past 80 years. While it is normal for different mission objectives to be highlighted at different
times, it now appears we are going “forward to the past” to
highlight mission areas that were important to FAS decades
ago, but haven’t been too prominent in recent years.
Our semi-resident historian, Allan Mustard, has identified several FAS subcultures, each one tied to a point in our
history. Each has been cleaved (in the
sense of split) into other agencies, while
FAS retains some of the policy initiatives
— and baggage — from each.
• Analysis & Trade Policy. FAS was established in 1930 to “acquire information
regarding world competition and demand.” However, detailed analysis was
shifted to the Department of Agriculture’s World Board and Economic Research Service, so FAS now focuses on
real-time analysis of current market conditions. In 1934, to undo the damage
caused by the Smoot-Hawley tariffs,
USDA Secretary Henry A. Wallace directed FAS to negotiate reciprocal agricultural tariff reductions with key trading partners. But
while FAS still provides the work force for agricultural negotiations, the chief agricultural negotiator is housed
within the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
• Surplus Disposal (Food Aid and Export Credits).
During World War II, FAS ran bilateral food-aid programs
and worked on the creation of the International Wheat
Council to coordinate multilateral donations. Currently,
FAS coordinates the Food for Progress and McGovern-Dole food-aid programs, as well as the GSM-102 short-term credit guarantee program. Since the formal creation
of USAID in 1961, emergency food-aid programs have
been coordinated outside of USDA, although the department handles the commodity procurement.
• Development & National Security Issues. While indirectly supporting national security issues since 1930, FAS
directly contributed to food-related analysis during World
War II and the recovery period. In the 1930s and 1940s, FAS
followed Sec. Wallace into more involvement in global agricultural development by working to create the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Science, supporting the
Rockefeller Foundation’s “green revolution” projects with
Norman Borlaug in Mexico, and helping to create the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. To
quote the Wikipedia article that Allan Mustard penned on
FAS, “By 1953, [FAS] had roughly 400
agricultural specialists working on development programs in 27 foreign countries.”
With the creation of the International
Cooperation Administration (now
USAID) in 1954, the role of USDA
changed from being the lead agency to
being a source of technical assistance.
However, since 2003, when we began coordinating agricultural reconstruction
and stabilization activities in Iraq, and
later Afghanistan and Pakistan, that role
is again mutating.
• Agricultural Export Promotion. In
1954, Congress directed FAS to undertake
agricultural export development activities, which led to the
market promotion programs that we administer today.
However, our role vis-a-vis the commodity cooperators
(nonprofit commodity or region-specific groups) has greatly
changed. In the early days of the programs, FAS approved
every expenditure at a very detailed level; now the cooperators receive their funds and provide a results report at the
end of the fiscal year. That independence has also eroded
support for FAS in Congress.
Cleave is a very interesting word, one with two completely
opposite meanings. Cleave can mean “to split or separate,”
but it can also mean “to adhere or cling.”
Over the years, FAS has clung to some central missions,
while it has also been separated from other missions. Buckle
up as we re-envision another set of FAS core missions —
hopefully with full funding to support them. ❏
Cleave can mean
“to split or separate,”
but it can also mean
“to adhere or cling.”
