The Food and Drug Administration has played an important role in the American society known today. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration affects every citizen of the United States. Its main objective is to guarantee every citizen the knowledge and protection of products, from atmospheric risks to medicines and foods consumed in the United States. A strong workforce of inspectors is responsible for monitoring trade and safety standards in the food and pharmaceutical industries. While many tasks performed by the FDA go unnoticed by the average citizen, an FDA absence would certainly not go unnoticed. However, the importance of the FDA today is just as important as how it was started. Wallace F. Jansseen, an FDA historian, in his article “The Story of the Laws Behind the Labels” writes about the inception of the agencies that later developed into the FDA. Janssee points out that the earliest forms of FDA began as the Department of Agriculture in 1862. Charles M. Wetherill was the first chemist to join the Department of Agriculture. Its main purpose was to test food, fertilizers, soils and other agricultural substances. Initially his experiments revolved around agricultural research but he inevitably became interested in food safety to find adulterated substances. Janssee points out that many of the substances tested were counterfeit, contaminated, diluted and decomposed drugs. Eventually his practice of finding adulterated substances was noticed in 1906 as part of the Food and Drugs Act. The Food and Drugs Act of 1906, also known as the Wiley Act, was legislation passed as a result of the efforts of Peter Collier and Dr. Harvey W. Wiley. Peter Collier was the one halfway through the article with the help of Terri Lewis, a physical science technician at the FDA. Lewis said all but 2.5% of his office staff are on leave. Lewis quoted: "Foreign food is imported from other countries every day and with far fewer inspectors it makes the job less safe." The FDA certainly has the important task of ensuring the availability of safe food and drugs to US citizens. This importance was understood by the men who worked to translate it into legislation. The resulting agency has continued to apply its policies consistently into the modern century without losing momentum. However, if the FDA is compromised due to a government shutdown, then it is of great importance to maintain consistency in the food and pharmaceutical standards it adopts. Standards that are of great importance today such as the standards initiated by the FDA.