USDA Blog

Cross posted from the Let’s Move! blog: More than 1,200 students, teachers and Scouts recently planted 4,500 trees at the Monument Fire Center on the Pike National Forest in Celebration of the International Year of Forests and as part of an ongoing restoration project in the area. The event brought...

Local leaders are keeping the spirit of Earth Day alive and well in rural South Dakota. On Monday April 18, 2011, USDA, Rural Development Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager announced 51 water and waste disposal and two Community Facilities projects funded as part of Earth Day 2011. I had the privilege...

Much of my work as a sociologist at the Economic Research Service (ERS) involves research on the food security of U.S. households – their ability to consistently obtain adequate food. My colleagues and I were naturally concerned about how the economic downturn that began in late 2007 would affect...

Minor Morgan has promoted organic farming for decades. And since the early 1990s, Morgan, executive director of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Community Farm, has been working with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to develop a farming process that is economically and environmentally...

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA's rich science and research portfolio. Proving that agriculture does indeed count, Director of the Statistics Division at USDA’s National Agricultural...

Last week, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan visited the campus of Michigan State University to participate in a tour of the cellulosic ethanol pretreatment lab at MBI International and conduct a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders in Michigan’s biofuels community. MBI is owned...

This is the second in a series of three blogs affiliated with USDA’s Agribusiness Trade and Investment Mission, which was led by Acting Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Michael Scuse. For years, it’s been my privilege to help bring U.S. fresh fruits and vegetables to the...

Soon after moving into the White House, the First Lady along with local elementary school children planted The Kitchen Garden at the White House, the first garden of its kind on White House grounds since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden during World War II. Weeks earlier, I celebrated the 200th...

The importation of Mexican feeder cattle is a tradition, a way of life and important to the border economy in Mexico and the U.S. The Mexican cattle producer is dependent on the U.S. cattle market, while U.S. feeders and packers need the Mexican feeder cattle for their operations. However, due to...

Gibbon, Nebraska with a population under 2,000 is celebrating the final payment of the first direct loan in Nebraska for a multi-family housing project through USDA Rural Development (the former Farmers Home Administration). Board members of Gibbon Centennial Manor and tenants of the 16 unit complex...