摘要：Congress and the u.s. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have repeatedly used legislative and regulatory tools in an attempt to improve the qualiry of grain delivered to our customers overseas. They have documented complaints, funded research, sent investigative teams overseas, and held innumerable congressional hearings on issues ranging from inspection fees to adulteration. Despite all these efforts, there has been no significant improvement in qualiry. Complaints from foreign buyers abour poor qualiry grain and threats that they will seek other sources of supply have changed very little in more than one hundred years. The Chicago Board of Trade received complaints from European importers about the poor qualiry of grain from U.S. exporters as early as 1857. President Theodore Roosevelt in his 1908 message to both houses called for action on grain grades, saying, "Complaints ... have continued for years, ... not only in this country but abroad." The prophet Amos gives an even longer historical perspective, as he berates the grain merchants in 750 S.c. for "giving short measure in the bushel. .. and selling the dust of the wheat."
