RICHARD FELTNER PAPERS, 1974-77

Richard L. Feltner was an academic expert in the field of agricultural economics when he became the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Consumer Services. After earning his doctorate, he pursued a career in education in the agricultural departments of Michigan State University and the University of Illinois. The position of Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Consumer Services stemmed from an educational and professional relationship Feltner began with Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz when both were at Purdue University – Feltner as a student and Butz as Dean of Agriculture. President Nixon appointed Butz as Secretary of Agriculture in 1971 and in 1974, when Clayton K. Yeutter shifted from Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Consumer Services to Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for International Affairs and Commodity, Butz turned to Feltner to fill the vacancy. In April 1974 President Nixon appointed, and the Senate confirmed, Feltner to the post.

The Marketing and Consumer Services division of the United States Department of Agriculture is made up of four offices: Agricultural Marketing Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Food and Nutrition Service, and Packers and Stockyards Administration. Some of the programs and operations Mr. Feltner’s office oversaw included the Food Stamp Program, the Food Distribution Program, meat, poultry, and egg products inspections, plant protection and quarantine programs, child nutrition programs, and marketing regulatory programs. For a more detailed summary of the Marketing and Consumer Services division of USDA, please see the 1974-75 United States Government Manual (see Appendix A for relevant pages).

Scope and Content Note
The Richard L. Feltner Papers consist solely of speech material from Feltner’s time in office and shortly thereafter. Feltner’s speeches primarily focused on what Marketing and Consumer Services was doing for the agricultural community as a whole, as well as specifying how this office impacted the work and lives of whomever Feltner addressed at a particular event. On several occasions Feltner was asked to stand in as speaker for other prominent USDA officials, including Secretary Earl Butz. Feltner’s words often depict what his office dealt with on a daily basis, focusing on such topics as food stamps, child nutrition, and federal regulations and market values affecting the United States’ agricultural economy.

Specific to the Ford administration, several of Feltner’s speeches mention the World Food Conference organized by the United Nations in November 1974. With this conference, the U.N. hoped to create a plan of action to aid those countries facing starving and malnourished populaces. By September of the following year, the United States sent Feltner to the International Wheat Conference with a proposal for an international grain reserve system that could be used by countries facing famine and drought. Another subject addressed in a number of Feltner’s speeches was the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) screwworm eradication program, which, in 1976, was finishing construction on a plant in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico. (Screwworm eradication is a form of biological control in which male flies are sterilized by gamma rays and then released in infested areas. Thus, any subsequent mating will produce unfertilized eggs, which will reduce the overall screwworm/fly population.) An additional timely topic was the National School Lunch Program. In the fall of 1975, President Ford vetoed legislation that would have amended the National School Lunch and Child Nutrition Act of 1966. Congress quickly overrode this veto, and Feltner’s speeches shortly thereafter expressed the administration’s viewpoints on the legislation and program.

Related Materials (March 2005)
Materials related to the agricultural topics covered in the Feltner Papers can be found in: the Richard B. Cheney Files, the Norman E. Ross Files, the Charles H. McCall Files, the President Ford Committee Campaign Records, the Presidential Handwriting Files, the James M. Cannon Files, the Paul C. Leach Files, the L. William Seidman Files, the A. James Reichley Files, the I. David Wheat files, the Patricia Lindh and Jeanne Holm Files, the White House Records Office: Legislation Case Files, the Sarah C. Massengale Files, the White House Central Files Name Files for Richard L. Feltner, and the White House Central Files Subject Files AG (Agriculture), FG (Federal Government Organizations/Units), and FO (Foreign Affairs).