Agency Histories

"The purpose of the Utah Department of Agriculture is to ensure a high-quality, safe, readily available and sustained supply of food and fiber for the citizens of the State of Utah. In doing this the department encourages the responsible stewardship of Utah's land, water, and other resources and seeks the economic well-being of Utah and her citizens by adding value to our Utah agricultural products and by aggressively seeking new markets for those products." The Utah Department of Agriculture contains six divisions: Administrative Services, Agricultural Marketing and Enhancement, Animal Industry, Chemistry Laboratories, Plant Industry, and Regulatory Services, as well as a number of employees supervised under the USDA/Animal Damage Control (predator control) program." (From "Capitol Connections" newsletter, May 1994, volume 2, issue 1, page 4.) Animal Damage Control: "Every year Utah wool growers lose about 10 percent of their animals to predators (10.8 percent in 1992), and cattlement suffer fewer but still costly losses to coyotes, mountain lions, bears, and other predators. Annual livestock losses to predators in Utah run about $3 million, even with a control program in place. To help reduce this drain on the state's economy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and states with predator control problems conduct a cooperative program called Animal Damage Control (ADC). Utah's program is financed jointly, with the federal government paying close to half of the total cost and state government and livestock owners paying the balance. Approximately half the hunters are state employees, and half are federal." (From "Capitol Connections" newsletter, May 1994, volume 2, issue 1, page 4.)