ABSTRACT
A productive and reliable agriculture system coupled with an efcient food-processing and distribution system is a basic requirement for the smooth functioning of an industrial nation such as the United States. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the growth and development of modern American agricultural and food-processing systems-their industrializationhave been, and are, a shining achievement of generations of industrious and innovative men and women under supportive governmental policies and programs that have afforded us a dependable, varied, economical, convenient, and delicious commercial food supply.
