U.S. Department of Agriculture

[AndyM]

During a discussion with a friend the other day about government bureaucracy, he mentioned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has more employees than there are farmers in the United States. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
Is there anybody here who can validate that? I know a lot of these type of "facts" turn out to be exagerations, but I might be able to believe this one. Any takers?

Another one he threw out--
There are more vehicles owned by the federal government than there are federal employees.
/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Gatorboy]

I'm not sure how many farmers there are in the United States, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture employs about 110,000.

 

[fivestring]

It wouldn't surprise me.

We are the only nation that pays a woman to produce and a farmer not to.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Gary, I agree with your sentiment but unfortunately we're not the only nation. I was born and brought up in the UK where the government pays an allowance for the "Second and subsequent children" and where farmers are not only paid to leave fields fallow but they are guaranteed a minimum price for what they do produce. That's why the European Common Market ended up with "wine lakes", "butter mountains" and seas of milk that they not only had to buy from the farmers but had to store in order not to drive the retail price down. They wouldn't release all the produce to the elderly and the needy in Europe but they did sell it to the Russians for 2 cents on the dollar. Go figure that one out. It's not only our government thats all screwed up.

 

[heehaw]

USDA includes the U.S. Forest Service, which has little to do with farmers, but a lot to do with managing the National Forest, recreation, and attempting to put out wild fires. not sure how many employees the FS has, but i think it is the largest agency in USDA. now, they call the department of defense, DOD, why don't they call the department of agriculture, DOA /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif?
as for vehicles, the FS has a lot of them, but not one per person, or not in this area anyway, even including the pumper trucks, and other fire related vehicles.
heehaw