Research in the Agricultural Research Service/USDA: Introduction and Early History

a period of intensive skirmishing and skillful diplomacy had finally resulted in the appropriation (6). Dr. Atwater, already the Director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, was appointed as Chief of Nutrition Investigations in the USDA’s Office of Experiment Stations. In the 10 y that Atwater headed the program, he coordinated or conducted work in 4 areas: types and amounts of foods consumed by different groups; chemical composition of foods; effects of cooking and food processing on nutritional quality; and amounts and types of nutrients people need to function at their best. These accomplishments led to his accoladeasthe‘‘FatherofNutritionScience’’intheUnitedStates. The human nutrition investigations were moved to Washington, DC, when Atwater retired in 1906 and the laboratory was put into the Office of Home Economics. The scientifically distinguished record proceeded in synchrony through the succeeding decades with discoveries of the vitamins and essential mineral elements. The energy metabolism work at the USDA was the lead in the nutrition field, but important work on human requirements for essential fatty acids, vitamin G (which became riboflavin), vitamin A requirements of adults, and human utilization of calcium from spinach also was accomplished.