USDA Blog

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. According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report issued in June 2011 there are 4,861,000 people with disabilities in...

For the past eight years, students in the Boxelder Job Corps Center culinary arts program have benefited from chef Dave Levesque's wide-ranging cooking experiences. Located in the Black Hills National Forest near Nemo, the Boxelder Job Corps Center has 24 students in its culinary arts curriculum...

The Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) Livestock and Seed Program Standardization Division recently participated in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) meetings in Buenos Aires to work on international meat standards. The global agricultural quality standards developed by...

Fred and Suzi Dow, publishers of the U.S. National Forest Campground Guide Website have visited every Forest Service national forest and grassland but they don’t see their project as completed. They have set off for another six months of visiting, surveying, and exploring national forests that might...

Throughout Minnesota, women are increasingly responsible for the stewardship of private forestlands, as the number of women owning and managing land across the country increases. To address this trend, the Minnesota Women’s Woodland Network (WWN) was formed in 2010. WWN provides resources to women...

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager made two visits to Michigan in the last few days and joining him in his travels was Rural Development State Director for Michigan James J. Turner and several of our staff as he crossed the state.

Now is the Time…and the Marcel Picotte Sr. family saw the opportunity and went for homeownership! Dr. Joe Leonard, USDA Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, and Janie Hipp, Senior Advisor to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack for Tribal Relations at USDA, joined Nebraska USDA Rural Development...

Wednesday was opening day of the 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall. The Festival features three great themes. One of the themes entitled “ Campus and Community” is a program that commemorates the 150th Anniversary of the founding of Land grant universities and the USDA. The...

June is National Homeownership Month, and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture we’ve spent the past few weeks highlighting the role housing plays in our small towns and rural communities. With 50 million Americans living in rural America, access to quality, safe housing is an important factor to a...

U.S. trends in organic farming point to a growing industry. USDA agencies like the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) support organic growers by offering funding and technical guidance—both to farmers already growing organic crops, and to those who want to transition to organic production...