---
kind: "section"
citation: "7 U.S.C. § 3401"
title: "7"
title_heading: "Agriculture"
number: "3401"
heading: "Congressional findings and declaration of policy"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/7/3401"
units:
  - "Chapter 65 — Wheat and Wheat Foods Research and Nutrition Education"
---

# §3401. Congressional findings and declaration of policy

- (a) [Wheat](/usc/7/3402.md?p=a) is basic to the American diet and the American economy. It is grown by thousands of farmers and consumed, in various forms, by millions of people in the [United States](/usc/7/3402.md?p=m).
- (b) The size of the American [wheat](/usc/7/3402.md?p=a) crop and how it is marketed and ultimately consumed determines whether many Americans receive adequate nourishment. [Wheat](/usc/7/3402.md?p=a) has a strong impact on the Nation’s well-being. Additional [research](/usc/7/3402.md?p=g) on the optimal use of [wheat](/usc/7/3402.md?p=a) products can improve the American diet. Consumer education about the nutritional value and economic use of [wheat](/usc/7/3402.md?p=a) products can enhance the national welfare.
- (c) It has long been recognized that it is in the national interest to have a regular, adequate, and high quality [wheat](/usc/7/3402.md?p=a) supply. It would be extremely difficult, without an effective coordinated [research](/usc/7/3402.md?p=g) and [nutrition education](/usc/7/3402.md?p=h) effort, to accomplish this objective. A programed effort of [research](/usc/7/3402.md?p=g) and [nutrition education](/usc/7/3402.md?p=h) is of great importance to [wheat producers](/usc/7/3402.md?p=d), [processors](/usc/7/3402.md?p=e), [end product manufacturers](/usc/7/3402.md?p=f), and consumers.
- (d) It is the purpose of this chapter and in the public interest to authorize and enable the creation of an orderly procedure, adequately financed through an assessment, for the development and initiation of an effective and continuous coordinated program of [research](/usc/7/3402.md?p=g) and [nutrition education](/usc/7/3402.md?p=h), designed to improve and enhance the quality, and make the most efficient use, of American [wheat](/usc/7/3402.md?p=a), [processed wheat](/usc/7/3402.md?p=b), and [wheat](/usc/7/3402.md?p=a) [end products](/usc/7/3402.md?p=c) to ensure an adequate diet for the people of the [United States](/usc/7/3402.md?p=m). The maximum rate of assessment authorized hereunder represents an infinitesimal proportion of the overall cost of manufacturing [wheat](/usc/7/3402.md?p=a) [end products](/usc/7/3402.md?p=c). Therefore, such assessment will not significantly affect the retail prices of those products. Furthermore, any price effect will be more than offset by the increased efficiency in [end product](/usc/7/3402.md?p=c) manufacture and increased consumer acceptance, due to nutritional improvements in [wheat](/usc/7/3402.md?p=a) products, which may be expected to follow from adoption of a plan under this chapter. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to provide for control of production or otherwise limit the right of individual [wheat producers](/usc/7/3402.md?p=d) to produce [wheat](/usc/7/3402.md?p=a).

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 95–113, title XVII, § 1702, Sept. 29, 1977, 91 Stat. 1031.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section effective Oct. 1, 1977, see section 1901 of Pub. L. 95–113, set out as an Effective Date of 1977 Amendment note under section 1307 of this title.

### Short Title

Pub. L. 95–113, title XVII, § 1701, Sept. 29, 1977, 91 Stat. 1031, provided that: “This title [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Wheat and Wheat Foods Research and Nutrition Education Act’.”

### Separability

Pub. L. 95–113, title XVII, § 1718, Sept. 29, 1977, 91 Stat. 1040, provided that: “If any provision of this title [this chapter] or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of the title and of the application of such provision to other persons and circumstances shall not be affected thereby.”