ABSTRACT
In 1987, United States (US) agricultural research concluded 100 years of administration and funding under the Hatch Act. This law established the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)/land-grant triad of government/experiment station/university, and supported science and technology for agriculture through non-competitive, centrally administered public funds. More broadly, the laboratory is the "equipped space" in which a scientist produces or tests theories, facts, and technologies. The "equipped space" can be an agronomist's field plots as easily as it can be a room filled with scientific machinery and supplies, usual idea of a laboratory. In Science, Agriculture, and the Politics of Research, Busch and Lacy document how agricultural research is influenced by disciplinary values and the goal of productivity. Busch and Lacy claim that the evolution of agricultural science has been marked by several trends. In the early stages of USDA/land-grant development, science was considered widely as the key to solving social problems.
