USDA Blog

The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 claimed the lives of over 13,000 people and left nearly 150,000 homeless.

A large crowd of local officials, library patrons and staff filled the children’s section of the Pittston Memorial Library in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on a hot May afternoon to hear good news from Senator Robert Casey. Smiles abounded as Senator Casey announced that the library is receiving a...

Tonya Clyde, a single mother of two young children was in the process of a divorce and living in a home owned by her soon to be ex-husband. She needed to find a home for herself, her children, and her 86-year old grandmother. Since she had always been a stay at home mom and never held a job, she was...

Today was an exciting day at USDA as I was joined by First Lady Michelle Obama and Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin to unveil USDA's new food icon, MyPlate. The icon is a departure from MyPyramid and serves as a quick, simple reminder to all consumers, built off of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for...

APHIS recognizes Ingram Carner with a certificate of appreciation for being the first person in the United States to spot the Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB). ALB experts Joseph Gittleman of APHIS' Plant Protection and Quarrantine program and Joan Mahoney of the New York State Department of...

In Afghanistan, wheat is not only a diet staple but is also the country’s most widely grown crop. When an invasive fungus known as Ug99 threatened to damage and destroy Afghan wheat, the USDA joined forces with U.S. Central Command and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan to help stop it. Together in late 2010...

To Elizabeth Bonner, the single greatest thing about her new home is the serenity she feels as she sits on her covered back porch, listening to the water as it rolls over the rocks that line the creek bed bordering the back of her property.

Last week USDA Rural Business-Cooperative Programs Administrator Judith Canales crossed Michigan’s Lower Peninsula at a series of events to highlight flex-fuel options and the availability of renewable energy assistance. She addressed the Michigan Business Incubator Association’s conference...

Sixty participants packed into the Cochise County Board of Supervisors Hearing Room in Arizona recently for a three-hour workshop on how to write applications for solar grants. One attendee came in for the event from Mohave County, some 400 miles away.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog: Students at Bellingham (MA) Public Schools found the key to attracting some top individuals to their school for lunch: they asked a state senator, state representative, a food industry executive, the state Child Nutrition director and me to judge the school’s...