THE USDA YEARS

photos of Lester R. Brown

Just starting at the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an international agricultural analyst, 1959-69

Lester’s first book, published November 1963

The issue that launched Lester’s analysis in Man, Land and Food and brought him to the attention of Orville Freeman, the Secretary of Agriculture.

Lester second book, published April 1965

Cable Lester sent to Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman to notify him of an impending famine in India due to a countrywide drought. This cable—and that Freeman took it seriously—mobilized the United States to ship 10 million tons of wheat to India and thus averted a famine. It also enabled the U.S. to put pressure on India to change their agricultural policies, which Lester was instrumental in drafting.

With Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman in early 1966 at the White House for a Sunday night meeting on the food crisis in India.

The Manhattan tanker was commissioned for grain relief in India, serving as a port in the Bay of Bengal since India did not have a large enough port to handle the grain shipments. Small boats, dhows, offloaded grain and moved it up the Ganges River and its tributaries to the most drought-effected areas.

Lester with President Lyndon Johnson and several other Outstanding Young Men in Federal Service awardees, 1965

Lester bring congratulated by President Lyndon Johnson in the Oval Office on receiving the Ten Outstanding Young Men in Federal Service award, 1965

Administrator, International Agricultural Development Service, 1966-69. Lester was responsible for managing agricultural programs in some forty countries, and, at 32, he was the youngest agency head in government.

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