USDA Blog

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog: On April 4 th I had the opportunity to join Illinois’ Senator Dick Durbin, the President and First Lady’s personal trainer and member of President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition Cornell McClellan and staff from USDA, the Department of Health and...

Producers interested in offering land in an effort to protect millions of acres of topsoil from erosion and improve the nation’s natural resources, have until Friday, April 15, to do so. This is the second consecutive year that USDA has offered a general Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) sign-up.

On Friday, April 8th I had the opportunity to see first-hand the many ways USDA Rural Development programs are improving the lives of rural Americans when I visited a variety of USDA-funded projects in Anita, Logan and Woodbine in western Iowa. In Anita, I met Duane Murphy, the local fire chief and...

Recently I had the opportunity to travel to south Texas to learn first-hand about our Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program. USDA has successfully eradicated cattle fever in the U.S. Only a permanent quarantine buffer zone remains in south Texas, which spans 500 miles from Del Rio to Brownsville...

You may have noticed a fresh, new look on USDA.gov last night – we're excited to announce the launch of our redesigned website! Our redesign team has been hard at work designing a new look and feel that should make navigating our site more user-friendly and intuitive. In support of our One USDA...

America’s forests and all the benefits they provide were cause for celebration at a special reception Wed., March 30 in Washington D.C. as part of America’s recognition of the U.N.’s Year of Forests 2011.

This winter, I had the opportunity to see an energy audit on a family farm near Amherst, Mass. Bruce LaFlamme and his son, Phil, had requested the audit to help them find ways to conserve heat and better insulate their greenhouse, where they grow vegetables year-round, as well as other plants during...

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog: Back in January, we posted a blog about the Chefs Move to Schools initiative, called Chef Helps Special Needs School Children Explore New Foods. The story highlighted the efforts of Morning Star School, Orlando, Fla., and created a windfall of support in the...