USDA Blog

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) was all ears on Tuesday as it opened up its hall to organic stakeholders to ask the question, “What activities should the Department focus on to serve the organic community?” Many took the opportunity to respond. During a day-long listening session hosted by USDA...

When it comes to expanding market share, increasing revenue and getting the word out about a great product or commodity, checkoff programs prove that there’s strength in numbers. Officially called research and promotion programs, checkoff programs give agricultural producers, importers and other...

Earlier this year, the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, created a People’s Garden as part of their efforts to live a more “green” life at work. “Green Teams,” volunteer organizations present in many U.S. embassies, look for ways to improve green issues at the embassy through programs that promote...

While invasive insect species are widely recognized as being among the greatest threats to biodiversity and ecosystem stability worldwide, there has been little research into their economic impact on the national level especially for non-native invasive species. Many examples come to mind like the...

Earlier this week, I attended the 2011 National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference to accept the ‘Chairman’s Award’ on Secretary Vilsack’s behalf. Over the decades, HBCUs have been critical in producing many of our nation’s great authors, intellectuals, civil rights and...

I’m an avid camper. There’s nothing better than spending a week in the woods enjoying the calm and quiet beauty of nature. Food tastes best to me when it’s cooked over a campfire. And I want to make sure that I’ll always be able to go camping when I want to relax.

USDA Forest Service research is transforming exhausted farmland in Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee into thousands of acres of hardwood forests that will provide revenue to landowners, remove carbon from the air and serve as habitats for wildlife. In 1998...

Ever wonder exactly how many Americans struggle to put food on table? It’s a question pondered more and more during a tough economy. Today, the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) has shed some light on these conditions with their annual analysis of Americans’ success in feeding themselves and...

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service is expanding upon its traditional Market News reports to create interactive dashboards. The dashboards, first launched in the summer of 2010, provide quick, easy access to volume and price information for cattle, hogs, and sheep.

The flooding from this year’s spring rain storms caused millions of dollars worth of damage to homes, businesses and crops in Arkansas. But some flooding was reduced or minimized, thanks to 207 small and medium-sized dams built by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), in partnership...