Beltsville Center Renamed to Honor Henry A. Wallace
(2 minutes, 2000)

[Marcos Ocadiz - reporting]

One of the largest agricultural research centers in the world has been renamed for one of the great pioneers research. The Henry A Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland was dedicated by the Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman.

[Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman]

Henry Wallace had a commitment to natural resources. He understood that they could not be taken for granted. In 1941, he observed, "We are slowly learning to think in terms of a new science called ecology." I think that if he were alive today he'd be proud not only because we're naming this facility after him but because the facility has such a rich and historic life and history in terms of helping people.

[Marcos Ocadiz]

Wallace believed that scientific research was the best way to advance agriculture and maintain the quality of soil and the environment as a whole. In addition to serving as one of the country's greatest secretaries of agriculture from 1932 to 1940, he also served as Vice President of the United States from 1940 to 1944 and Secretary of Commerce from 1945 to 1946. 

[John Culver, Former U.S. Senator]

In 1988, on the centennial of his birth, the US Congress observed that his work with hybrids which revolutionized world food production will rank, quote, "Along with the greatest achievements of human history." Under Henry A Wallace the Agriculture Department's research center here at Beltsville became the largest and most varied scientific agricultural station in the world.

[Marcos Ocadiz]

Today this 6,700 acre scientific facility is home to more than 300 scientists conducting research on every aspect of agriculture from improving the nutritional content of foods to developing vaccines to protect livestock from disease.

In Beltsville, Maryland, Marcos Ocadiz reporting for the US Department of Agriculture.