ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the historical role of agricultural science within the United States (US) food system. It examines the context for agricultural research in terms of (1) the current structure of agriculture and its implications for food security and (2) the changing assumptions for science in society. The entry of science into agriculture was at first a gradual process. By the late 1830s stationary steam engines had been developed by the private sector and were in use for threshing, ginning, sawing wood, and grinding sugar cane. The research institutions that would later become an integral part of the agricultural system began to emerge during the middle of the nineteenth century. The motivations for the establishment of the experiment stations were diverse and sometimes contradictory, but included a utilitarian concept of agricultural science. Agricultural research became one of the unquestioned success stories of public investment in science.
