The Foreign Service Journal, May 2009

M A Y 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 27 F O C U S O N FA S & FCS FAS AT A C ROSSROADS : R ESHAPING A G D IPLOMACY imes are hard — the econ- omy is sputtering, unemployment is climbing, tax revenues have imploded, and the Foreign Agricultural Service is threatening employee furloughs. Trade problems are mul- tiplying rapidly, and negotiators are scrambling to keep ex- port markets open in the face of protectionist sentiment at home and abroad. The new Democratic president is pushing Congress in fresh directions in both foreign rela- tions and international trade policy, creating new chal- lenges for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service — just as it faces the worst budgetary shortfall in its history. Does that sound familiar? It should. But the year is 1934. FAS has just closed three overseas offices due to lack of money, and has announced 24-day furloughs for all employees paid more than $1,000 per annum. The situa- tion is so dire that instructions are sent to Sydney to sell the used railing, shelving and linoleum of that recently closed office to cover expenses associated with breaking the lease. Yet despite the fiscal pressure, and with no ad- ditional staffing, the agency has been handed a new re- sponsibility: collaborating with the State Department on international negotiation of agricultural tariff reductions under authority of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934. Seventy-five years later, we face similar challenges. In the face of a budget shortfall, FAS is expected not only to carry out its traditional mission of export promotion but to assume new responsibilities in the realms of national se- curity, climate change and global food security. At the same time, a Congress and new administration increas- ingly preoccupied with domestic headaches, coupled with a stalled Doha Round, hint at a weakening of support for the liberalization philosophy that has underpinned trade policy for three-quarters of a century. Will FAS survive? The Little Engine That Could The single most consistent engine of economic growth T HE F OREIGN A GRICULTURAL S ERVICE HAS REPEATEDLY REINVENTED ITSELF THROUGHOUT ITS 80- YEAR HISTORY . T HE TIME HAS COME FOR ANOTHER EVOLUTION . B Y A LLAN M USTARD T Allan Mustard joined the Foreign Service with the U.S. In- ternational Communication Agency in 1978 and has worked for the Foreign Agricultural Service since 1982. In addition to serving as minister counselor for agricultural affairs in Mexico City, he is curator and webmaster of the FAS Virtual Museum, as well as the author of a 2003 man- agement study of FAS structure and corporate culture, and of two previous Foreign Service Journal articles. The au- thor thanks several anonymous reviewers for helpful com- ments. The views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect of- ficial views of the U.S. government, the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Foreign Agricultural Service.