2011

Nearly two dozen of our Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) inspectors received the prestigious Colonel Rohland A. Isker Award for support of military food operations today.  I am tremendously proud of each of them, and tremendously proud of the vital role they play in ensuring that every soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine who opens a meal during battle conditions can rely on it to taste good, be nutritious, and provide the energy he or she needs.

The U.S. Forest Service’s HistoriCorps program in Golden, Colo., is one of 23 award winners honored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation during its 2011 National Preservation Conference Oct. 20 in Buffalo, N.Y.

Hiking the backcountry in a national forest is a special experience where you will see wildlife and nature in its basic elements.  But just in case you run into problems, there are wilderness rangers on some trails to lend a hand.

Thousands of young people have successfully passed through the Anaconda Jobs Corps Civilian Conservation Center in a mile-high valley on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.

The facility in southwest Montana is on the largest national forest in the state and boasts two wilderness areas and spectacular scenery that goes on for miles.

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.

Nutrition advice is all around us—in grocery stores, magazines, public service announcements, and food labels.  We’re urged to cut back on fats, sodium, and added sugars, and eat more fiber, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables. But if we don’t think our diets need improving, we may turn a blind eye or deaf ear to dietary advice.  We may think all that advice is directed to someone else.

As far back as 1902, a national U.S. Forest Service library formed with the transfer of 3,000 books from the Department of Agriculture library. It grew steadily over the years providing a range of services to research customers. Gradually interest grew in expanding service to other Forest Service employees outside of the research branch and to consolidate into fewer locations.

However, over the decades, and because of its evolving decentralized organization structure, large parts of the Forest Service and the public ended up without access to library services.

The Forest Service has managed wildfires for more than 100 years and is considered the best wildland fire organization in the world. As leaders, we are continually striving to gain a better understanding of fire behavior with cutting edge research and technology. Sharing our expertise through international exchange programs is critical to advancing natural resource protection and wildland fire techniques worldwide.

Knowing your forests and how climate change is affecting their health was the overarching theme on a recent Emerald Planet Inside Scoop program. David Cleaves, the U.S. Forest Service Climate Change Advisor, was the sole guest on the hour long live broadcast that was simulcast on CSPAN and the Internet to more than 150 nations.

The show was divided into four segments which included Forest Service history and a wide range of information about the USDA land management agency’s Research and Development program. The last segment focused on the implementation of the U.S. Forest Service’s National Roadmap for Climate Change and its nationally recognized scorecard rating system.

Last week, 40 Borlaug Fellows from 21 countries as far away as Azerbaijan and Zambia were in Des Moines, Iowa, to attend the Borlaug International Symposium and World Food Prize ceremony. Accompanying them were 16 mentors—professors, scientists, and researchers—from U.S. land-grant universities and international research centers, as well as public, private, and non-profit organizations. These Fellows and their mentors are part of the Norman E. Borlaug Agricultural Science and Technology Fellows Program established by USDA in 2004 to honor Nobel Laureate Norman E. Borlaug.

Recently I was in Des Moines, Iowa, to participate in events leading up to World Food Day. This day is observed each October 16th in recognition of the founding of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945. The first World Food Day was held in 1981. Its purpose is to increase worldwide awareness and year-round action to alleviate hunger.

On October 10, I had the honor of speaking to a large group of people at Iowa State University about the importance of the world producing enough food to feed its growing population. This is not just a moral issue, or an economic issue, or an agricultural issue. It is an issue of national security.

When you consider the challenges we face today—925 million people around the world were undernourished last year—and those we foresee in 30 to 40 years—a world population growing by one-third to more than 9 billion that will require a 70-percent increase in food production—you understand why the United States and the international community must tackle this serious, long-term threat.