United States Department of Agriculture building

The United States Department of Agriculture (also known as the Agriculture Department or USDA) is a Cabinet Department of United States. It deals with the policy of farming, agriculture, and food, its basic charge is to protect American agriculture.

The Department of Agriculture was established on May 15, 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln. But that time it did not have the cabinet status. Lincoln called it the "people's department". It was elevated to the Cabinet level by President Grover Cleveland on February 9, 1889. The USDA is administrated by The United States Secretary of Agriculture.

The headquarters of the United States Department of Agriculture is located at 1400 Independence Avenue Southwest on National Mall in Washington D.C., in the Whitten Building (it is the only cabinet level agency building located directly on the mall). The construction of the building took nearly thirty years because of problems with its financing – because of funding war (it started in 1903 and was finished in 1930). It was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm of Rankin, Kellogg and Crane and it was constructed according to their neo-classical design.

The building was renamed the Jamie L. Whitten Building in June 1995. Whitten was a Congressman of Mississippi who served as Chairman of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.