safe and wholesome food supply. USDA responsibilities are set forth in a series of 
statutes assigning specific regulatory functions to the Department of Agriculture. These 
are: 
1. The Meat Inspection Act of 1906. 
2. The Insecticide Act of 1910. 
3. The Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946. 
4. The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act of 1947. 
5. The Poultry Products Inspection Act of 1957. 
6. Public Law 86-139 of 1959, which extends coverage of the Federal Insectic de, 
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act to include nematocides, defoliants, desiccants, 
and plant-growth regulators. 
In addition to these laws, which involve only the Department of Agriculture, t1¢: 
Department was assigned certain responsibilities under Public Law 83-518, comrnorly 
referred to as the Miller Amendment to the Food and Drug Act. This Act provides for tiz2 
establishment, by the Food and Drug Administration, of safe tolerances for pesticid>3 
that may leave residues in or on rawagricultural commodities at time of marketing. 
In recent years the trend in the Congress has been toward prescribing more pre:- 
clearance of chemicals in dealing with possible residues or other forms of food contami: 
nation. This is good--it serves two purposes. (1) It gives greater assurance of safety to 
the consumer. (2) It gives food producers, processors, and distributors more precise 
guidelines for assuring the safety of their products. 
Being a regulatory man I can’t pass up this opportunity to rationalize our aims and 
objectives with the spirit of the times. 
Approximately 50 percent of the more destructive agricultural pests in this country 
are of foreign origin. Among them are: The European corn borer, the boll weevil, 
Mexican bean beetle, gypsy moth, and the Japanese beetle. Those who generalize about 
the balance of nature please take note--if it hadn't been for the carelessness of man 
these and many other pests and diseases that plague us today wouldn't be here to contribute 
to the imbalance we hear so much about. Of the 100 most destructive pests introduced in 
the last 50 years, only about 15 percent have become established in the last 25 years. 
This record is good. It must be improved--and will be--as our port-of-entry work is 
strengthened, and the cooperative Federal-State insect and plant and animal disease 
surveys become more fully operative. Once a new pest of destructive potential--or a 
disease of livestock--becomes established in this country, we have no practical choice 
but to contain and eradicate it if possible. Preventive medicine is good medicine. 
In the last 30 years we have eradicated the Parlatoria date scale, citrus canker, 
the citrus blackfly, the Hall scale, the Texas fever tick, and the Mediterranean fruitfly 
on two different occasions. Insect-borne diseases such as malaria and typhus are no 
longer a major problem because we have successfully controlled the insects that transmit 
them. 
Our joint efforts with the State of New York have confined the golden nematode, one 
of the world's most destructive pests of Irish potatoes, to a small area on Long Island 
for a period of 15 years or more. During this time we have been constantly pressing for 
a treatment that would achieve eradication. Such a treatment appears to be close at hand. 
The khapra beetle has reached the search and treat stage. Of the 709 infestations 
found as of March 31, totaling more than 169 million cubic feet of storage space, only 
14--in California and Arizona--representing some 2 million cubic feet, remain to be fumi- 
gated. Additional infestations will undoubtedly be found; however, eventual eradication 
now seems assured. 
The spread ofthe gypsy moth has been stopped. Infestations once established in Michi- 
gan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey no longer exist or will be treated this year. 
5 
