USDA Blog

Hunger is not an abstract idea. It is a reality affecting the lives of millions of Americans every single day. And it hits our children particularly hard, with over 16 million kids in our country experiencing food insecurity each year. Internationally, nearly 1 billion people across the globe will...

June is homownership month and you could say the Nevada heat drove everyone under the tent together. With mercury touching 103 degrees, the tent at the Color Country Self-Help Housing development in Mesquite, Nevada, was a good source of shade, but it could not chill the sense of pride and...

During June, we often celebrate many things: National Homeownership Month, the end of the school year and graduations, Father’s Day, and being able to watch our favorite teams duke it on the baseball diamond. But at USDA we have another favorite June celebration – National Dairy Month.

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 USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico is unique for the U.S. Forest Service. At 28,000 acres, it’s the smallest national...

For nearly a century, the aquatic life that once thrived in the Monday Creek Watershed has been virtually dead. The goal of this Recovery Act project, known as "Devastation to Destination," is to construct a healthy functioning riparian corridor, restore water quality, and create an integrated land...

Earlier today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack released a report highlighting the ways in which Community Facilities infrastructure investments in rural communities help create jobs and boost economic development, and Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager announced additional investments that will...

When pest detections led China to suspend exports of logs from Virginia and South Carolina last spring, USDA began work to minimize the impact of this trade disruption on one of those states’ most important industries. We began by negotiating with China to establish science-based standards to allow...

Since 1997, Prairieland Economic Development Commission in Slayton, Minnesota, has been partnering with USDA Rural Development and local lenders to grow the economy and create jobs in southwestern Minnesota. Prairieland has financed over 60 rural businesses and helped create hundreds of jobs using...

Recently I had a great opportunity to attend a meeting of Maryland’s Partnership to End Childhood Hunger. Led by Governor Martin O’Malley’s Office for Children, the Partnership "table" brings together state agencies, USDA, local non-profit organizations such as food banks, advocacy groups, and the...

USDA in Arizona has joined the national partnership effort with the Department of Education (ED) to get the word out about federal student aid resources. Arizona Rural Development (RD), Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)—the three USDA agencies that comprise...