PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

The United States will fund and test cost-effective ways to grow and process guayule (Parthenium) and other hydrocarbon-containing plants, and other native crops, so they can be used to make important agricultural materials like natural latex and other strategic products. Congress finds that natural Hevea latex is vital to the economy, defense, and public welfare, and the country now relies entirely on foreign sources for about one million tons a year. Synthetic rubber cannot replace natural latex. Guayule, native to Texas and Mexico, and some other plants contain usable rubber, and World War II research showed guayule can be a real substitute. More research is needed to boost yields before private industry can take over. A homegrown industry would cut foreign dependence and help arid regions. Federal and private research (including USDA, Commerce, and NSF) has been working on this and should continue and expand.

Title 7, §178

Agriculture, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)Congress recognizes that natural latex rubber is a commodity of vital importance to the economy, the defense, and the general well-being of the Nation. The United States is totally dependent upon foreign sources for its supplies of natural (Hevea) latex, which total about one million tons per year. Synthetic rubber, manufactured from petroleum feedstocks, cannot be substituted for natural rubber.

(2)Congress further recognizes that certain plant species of the genus Parthenium (Guayule), native to Texas and the Republic of Mexico, as well as other plants, are known to contain commercial quantities of extractable rubber. During World War II, through research carried out by the Secretary of Agriculture in the Emergency Rubber Project, the United States demonstrated that Parthenium latex is a promising and realistic substitute for Hevea latex.

(3)Congress further recognizes that additional research and development are needed, especially into methods for increasing latex yields, before commercialization of native Parthenium latex or other hydrocarbon-containing plants by private industry is feasible.

(4)Congress further recognizes that the development of a domestic natural rubber industry, based on Parthenium and other hydrocarbon-containing plants, would not only relieve the Nation’s dependence upon foreign latex sources but also convey substantial economic benefits to people living in arid and semiarid regions of the United States. Such an industry would comprise the agricultural production of the hydrocarbon-containing plants and the development of commercial processing and manufacturing facilities to extract the latex and other products.

(5)Congress further recognizes that ongoing research into the development and commercialization of native latex has been conducted by the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the National Science Foundation, and other public as well as private and industrial research groups, and that these research efforts should be continued and expanded.

(b)In addition, Congress recognizes that the development of a domestic industry or industries for the production and manufacture from native agricultural crops of products other than rubber which are of strategic and industrial importance but for which the Nation is now dependent upon foreign sources, would benefit the economy, the defense, and the general well-being of the Nation, and that additional research efforts in this area should be undertaken or continued and expanded.

(c)It is therefore the policy of the United States to provide for the development and demonstration of economically feasible means of culturing and manufacturing Parthenium and other hydrocarbon-containing plants, along with other native agricultural crops, for the production of critical agricultural materials to benefit the Nation and promote economic development.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1984—Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 98–284, § 2(1), redesignated existing provisions of subsec. (a) as par. (1). Subsec. (a)(2) to (4). Pub. L. 98–284, § 2(2), redesignated subsecs. (b), (c), and (d) as pars. (2), (3), and (4), respectively, of subsec. (a). Subsec. (a)(5). Pub. L. 98–284, § 2(2), (3), redesignated subsec. (e) as par. (5) of subsec. (a), and in par. (5), as so redesignated, substituted “development and commercialization of native latex has been conducted by the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the National Science Foundation, and other public as well as private and industrial research groups,” for “commercialization of native latex has been conducted by the Department of Agriculture and by the Department of Commerce through the regional commissions”. Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 98–284, § 2(4), added subsec. (b). Former subsec. (b) redesignated (a)(2). Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 98–284, § 2(4), added subsec. (c). Former subsec. (c) redesignated (a)(3). Subsecs. (d) and (e). Pub. L. 98–284, § 2(2), redesignated subsecs. (d) and (e) as (a)(4) and (a)(5), respectively. Subsec. (f). Pub. L. 98–284, § 2(4), struck out subsec. (f) which provided: “It is the policy of the Congress, therefore, to provide for the development and demonstration of economically feasible means of culturing and manufacturing Parthenium and other hydrocarbon-containing plants for the extraction of natural rubber and other products to benefit the Nation and promote economic development”. See subsec. (c).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short Title

Pub. L. 95–592, § 1, Nov. 4, 1978, 92 Stat. 2529, as amended by Pub. L. 98–284, § 1, May 16, 1984, 98 Stat. 181, provided: “That this Act [enacting this subchapter and amending section 1314f of this title] may be cited as the ‘Critical Agricultural Materials Act’.” As originally enacted Pub. L. 95–592 had been cited as the “Native Latex Commercialization and Economic Development Act of 1978”.

§178 Congressional Findings and Declaration of Policy