60th Anniversary Telecom Programs and Award of Community Connect Grants Observed in Hurley, Virginia

It was exciting to have Congressman Rick Boucher, 9^th District of Virginia and the Deputy Administrator for USDA Rural Development’s Rural Utilities programs, Jessica Zufolo join me last week in Hurley, Virginia for an awards ceremony. The event highlighted the funding of three Virginia rural community broadband projects and the 60^th anniversary of the involvement of USDA in providing Telecommunication infrastructure improvements to rural America.

 

I am proud to say that Southwest Virginia will be receiving Community Connect Grants totaling over $2.4 million dollars that will help purchase and install high speed internet equipment to the rural communities of Hurley, Carbo and Grant. Working with the Rural Utilities Service Virginia Field Representative Richard Jenkins; Paul Gearheart from Inter Mountain Cable, Michael Maynard from the Wired Road Authority and Thomas Kurien from Almega Cable were successful in their pursuit of this USDA Funding. Certificates of Appreciation were provided to each cable service at the ceremony. As a result of this assistance, cable customers in these three areas will soon have high speed internet service available, improving educational and business opportunities.

 

Starting with a farm family receiving its first in home telephone in the 1950’s, to the rural household now being able to run an international business from a home office, USDA continues to play an important role in bringing new modern telecom services to rural Virginia.

 

Virginia has been very successful over the years in delivering new technology to rural areas of the state.  Since the inception of the programs, over $10 million dollars has been provided in our State for Distance Learning and Community Connect Grants. Other key achievements in Virginia include the Telemedicine System currently being operated by the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville. This state-of-the-art system allows medical specialists at the UVA Medical Center to perform detailed medical examinations of patients in over 20 rural clinics mainly in remote Southwest Virginia. Without this service, these patients would have to travel for many hours over challenging roads to obtain advanced medical care.  

 

 

 By Ellen M. Davis, Virginia State Director, USDA Rural Development

Permalink  |  Posted: 03:39PM Nov 18, 2009 by USDAblogger in USDA Web Site  |  Add Your Comment Here [0]

Looking Back at the KYF2 Launch

There were many moving parts in the week-long launch of the USDA-wide initiative Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food (KYF2). In this, my first blog entry, I review the week’s events. It was, in short, a whirlwind.

We gave a theme to each day of the week, which helped organize our announcements and reveal the major components of KYF2. Throughout, Secretary Vilsack and members of the Subcabinet were all on message: not every family needs an accountant, not every family needs a lawyer, but every family needs a farmer.

Sorry about the length of this posting – but I have a lot to tell you!

Creation of Rural Wealth

On Monday, September 14, our theme was creation of rural wealth. Local and regional food systems can help revitalize rural communities, oftentimes by more efficiently linking with urban consumers. Assuming such systems are desirable, it is natural to ask why they are almost non-existent. What structural barriers impede development of local and regional food systems and what can be done about them? Some of the challenges include lack of local slaughter, storage, and processing capacity, and a lack of cooperatives to help small farmers aggregate product. To begin to address structural barriers, we made a series of announcements:

Local slaughter capacity: The 2008 Farm Bill provided many boosts for local and regional food systems, not least among them a directive for USDA to establish a system whereby small slaughter facilities can gain Federal approval for shipment of meat across state lines. While that may seem counter-intuitive to local, at first glance, consider a small plant in Wisconsin near the border of Minnesota. Perhaps the “foodshed” (more on this term in a future blog) actually crosses state lines, but the meat from the plant cannot since it is only state-inspected. Strengthening the capacity of these small plants will also help specialty markets, such as slaughter of grass-fed beef. The interstate meat proposed rule was announced and put on display on OMB’s website. While this is just the first step in the rulemaking process, I expect we will be able to move quickly on this issue which is good for KYF2.

Local processing capacity: We also advertised the availability of funds under our Value Added Producer Grants program. This program supports farmers looking to add value to their product through processing, such as by turning milk into yogurt. If you’re an interested farmer, keep in mind that simply by marketing a product locally you can qualify for a Value Added Producer Grant. For more information click here.

Formation of Cooperatives: USDA announced $4.8 million in grants under the Rural Cooperative Development Program, which can be used to support the creation or operations of a cooperative. The Ohio State University Foundation, for example, will use some of their $200,000 grant toward technical assistance to farmers market managers around the state who came together to form a cooperative.

KYF2 Task Force: Maybe our most important announcement was that we have a USDA KYF2 interagency task force, which has been hard at work since May. Every agency at USDA is represented. This is important because the way government programs and people work in silos can, itself, prove to be a structural barrier to coordinating resources and joint problem solving. I have the privilege of chairing this KYF2 Task Force, which meets every two weeks. Over time I will blog about our various Task Force members, all of whom are enthusiastic and dedicated.

Farm-to-Institution

Our theme Tuesday, September 16 was Farm-to-Institution. As many of you well know, there is great interest in farm-to-school, but we want to think beyond that. Farm-to-healthcare and farm-to-college are among the institutional linkages that need to be encouraged because such relationships will help build local markets for farmers and ranchers.

To this end, we made three important announcements.

Local Procurement: In the 2008 farm bill, Congress directed the USDA to do a better job assisting schools to procure food locally with USDA resources. Last week we announced our intention to follow-through on this mandate and provide $50 million for schools to buy local. In future blogs, I will provide more detail on this exciting development.

Fresh in Schools: When I found out that local apples were rejected as USDA school lunch purchases because they were sliced and bagged – and therefore processed by a technical definition, I asked my USDA colleagues in FNS and our Office of General Council to reflect on the spirit as well as the letter of the law. The result: a broadened definition of what constitutes fresh for school nutrition programs. In future blogs, I will provide more details on this effort but for now, understand it means healthier school meals.

Farm-to-School Tactical Teams: The number of hoops a school’s nutritionist needs to jump through in order to get quality fresh, local food in their kids’ stomachs is surprising. To start, schools and farms are on entirely different schedules, with most of the prime growing months coming when kids are done for the summer. Stretched school budgets and simply not knowing how to reach local farmers makes it all the more difficult. In order to overcome these barriers, the USDA will be deploying Tactical Teams in various school districts in order to understand what works for farm-to-school programs, and then share these solutions around the country.

Healthy Eating

Wednesday our theme was healthy eating. How can we use local and regional food systems to improve the American diet? To begin to address this question, we made two announcements. First, we released our Community Food Projects grants. Many of these grants are aimed at providing greater food access in low income communities – many of which are food deserts. For example, in Portland, Oregon, nearly $300,000 will be awarded to Janus Youth Programs to establish community gardens in public housing as well as to foster local food-related entrepreneurialism and issue awareness. At the same time, we focused inward and took a good look at our own USDA cafeteria. Are there ways we can better incorporate the nutrition advice we provide the American public into what we do in our own building? To this end, we banned fried foods for the day, substituted fresh fruit for donuts, and posted signs on the soda machines asking people to consider water, juice and milk. All entries had calorie and other nutrition facts posted. And best of all, we had so much locally grown food! Sam Kass, assistant White House Chef and food policy initiative coordinator came and prepared a locally grown salad selection for USDA employees. We all felt special, dining in the mode of the First Family! While this was a pilot activity, we plan on working, in a comprehensive way, on improving our food practices here at Headquarters.

Direct Marketing

Thursday was a blast. I joined the First Lady and Secretary Vilsack at the opening of the Vermont Avenue Farmer’s Market, just a couple of blocks from the White House. The rain could not dampen our spirits. A huge and enthusiastic crowd formed and cheered our First Lady who delivered inspirational remarks and described how important it is to support farmers. Secretary Vilsack announced our Farmers Market Promotion grants – 86 of them across 37 states. And if you think farmers markets are just for yuppies, consider this: 18% of the USDA grant dollars announced are to support establishment of electronic benefit transfer capacity at farmers markets so that families receiving SNAP benefits can participate. Some foundations (Wholesome Wave, Fair Food Network) are working to double SNAP benefits at our markets so that every one dollar spent at the market yields $2 worth of food. So far, only a few markets are receiving this great boost, but what a great idea!

As well on Thursday, we announced what will be a multi-year Agricultural Research Service project to develop strategies to build local food systems along the northeast corridor. Teams from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and Economic Research Service will analyze and model the region’s food chain in order better understand local food production and, ultimately, increase food security.

Ag is Back – join the conversation

The Secretary kicked off our week with a posting on YouTube inviting people to share their ideas and stories. Our subcabinet was also on the road all week, discussing KF2. For example, Ann Wright, our acting Under Secretary of Marketing and Regulatory Programs, travelled to Illinois and spoke at the Chef’s Collaborative in Chicago and then the National Small Farms Conference in Springfield. And today I hosted the USDA's first live Facebook chat on KYF2. I’m looking forward to your help in shaping USDA’s KYF2 agenda.

Kathleen A. Merrigan, Deputy Secretary

Permalink  |  Posted: 04:56PM Oct 01, 2009 by USDAblogger in USDA Web Site  |  Add Your Comment Here [2]

Rain or Shine, Local Farmers Deliver

It was a rainy morning here at the USDA headquarters in Washington DC, but that did not stop the local farm vendors from setting up shop at the weekly USDA Farmer’s Market.

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan stopped by the market this morning to purchase local fruits and vegetables for donation. Tomatoes the size of a boxer’s fist, eggplants of all purple hues, and peppers as crisp as the breeze around us found their way into bags and boxes on their way to a local kitchen for the homeless and underserved.

The produce from Virginia, Maryland, and southern Pennsylvania represents the growing popularity of farmer’s markets around the country. The USDA’s Farmer’s Market was started in 1996 and due to the success and popularity, has continued to grow every year since. The market is located on the grounds of the USDA headquarters and is open from June 5 until October 30. The market features 14 vendors and receives over 2500 visitors a day.

The market has become an integral part of USDA's commitment to develop effective direct marketing strategies for farmers. According to a study by the Agricultural Marketing Service, an agency within the USDA, the U.S. farmers market industry shows the sector continues to experience brisk growth. Between the year 2000, when AMS conducted its first comprehensive national survey of farmers markets, and the end of 2005, the number of farmers markets in the United States increased 43 percent, from 2,863 to 4,093, an average growth rate of 8.6 percent a year. Total farmers market sales nationwide now exceed $1 billion dollars annually.

After selecting several cases and bags of food, Deputy Secretary Merrigan delivered the produce to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack who was delivering them fresh from the farm to the table at the DC Central Kitchen.

Permalink  |  Posted: 04:06PM Sep 11, 2009 by USDAblogger in USDA Web Site  |  Add Your Comment Here [1]

The Future of Community Gardens in DC and Beyond

Guest post submitted by Kathy Jentz of Washington Gardener Magazine

The last week of August was proclaimed Community Gardening Week by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and the new People’s Garden project outside the USDA headquarters fronting on the National Mall was a perfect place to discuss community garden in the greater DC-area and take a long at its future. On September 4, I joined a local farmer and USDA staff to talk about growing tomatoes, maximizing your harvest, and community gardening.

At Washington Gardener Magazine, we are seeing the requests for community garden plot space double each year. We see this trend generated not so much by economics as it is by a desire to be able to be in touch with the Earth and living a more simple, sustainable life-style. Going a step beyond buying local or organic, gardeners that grow their own food have complete control of its production and feel a real sense of accomplishment.

Land use issues are prohibiting many potential gardeners from growing where they live. From Home Owner Associations to small town ordinances, folks are fighting rules that prohibit front yard edible gardens. Many must turn to community garden plots to provide needed growing space. Those in apartments, rental homes, in shady older neighborhoods, etc. are also seeking out community garden plots to grow in.

In a related trend, urban land owners are offering their un-used yards to neighbors who want to grow, but may not have the space. Web sites that match landowners with potential gardeners are springing up in cities across the nation. Many ask for a small share of what is grown in exchange for the land use. This is a win-win for everyone.

One new trend in community garden is combining plots and working them together to share the harvest. Instead of each gardener having their own small area, they pool the land and decide as a group what will be grown that season.

Another new trend is urban farming. In which a group buys up a piece of unused land with the express purpose of growing edibles and dividing up the produce among the share-holders. Sometimes they sell the excess produce at local farmer’s markets or grow for an express purpose such as a food bank donation.

School gardens are an expanding trend. Many schools use gardens for teaching science, math, art, etc. and now they are growing food in them to supplement what children are eating in their cafeterias. Colleges are also jumping in by allowing students to set aside a portion of their campuses for community gardens.

All of these community garden trends are converging and the result is that more Americans are gardening. Learning about food, and eating what they grow.

Follow our Twitter feed and Flickr account for the latest information on the People's Garden, and check in on the weekly Healthy Garden Workshop schedule.

Permalink  |  Posted: 10:06AM Sep 08, 2009 by USDAblogger in USDA Web Site  |  Add Your Comment Here [0]