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United States Department of Agriculture is founded for collection and distribution of seeds.

1862

The Story of The Patenting of Life
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The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is created to standardize the distribution of seeds. Prior to this, seeds were brought to the U.S. by immigrant farmers or stolen from tribal nations. The USDA is formed to meet trade agreements, send seeds to farmers for free, and encourage farmers to create hybrid strains. All of these activities are now centralized in a federal department for the first time.