fruits

Support your health with good nutrition while spending less money. Nutrition.gov has resources to help you get the best price on produce and cook tasty, low-cost recipes while staying at home to protect yourself and others and slow the spread of COVID-19. Fit fruits and vegetables into your food budget with these 3 tips.

According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, Utah had more than 18,400 farms encompassing more than 10.8 million acres. This is an increase of 2 percent in the number of farms and a decrease of 1 percent in total acres compared to the 2012 Census of Agriculture. Just under 80 percent of Utah’s farmland is permanent pasture and rangeland –– but a significant amount is cropland, of which most is irrigated. The total value of agricultural sales is $1.84 billion, of which 31 percent are from crop sales and 69 percent are from livestock and their products!

As we celebrate Farm to School Month this October, we can all feel the temperatures cooling down with the fall season. Here are seven ways USDA’s Farm to School Program can make your school and community ‘cooler’ throughout the year!

It might not be the Giants’ year in baseball, but in U.S. agriculture, California is clearly the MVP in sales. According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, California’s 70,527 farmers ranked No. 1 in agricultural sales with $45.2 billion; this accounted for nearly 12 percent of the U.S. total and was over $16 billion more than the No. 2 state. In addition, Fresno, Tulare, Monterey, Kern, Merced, Stanislaus, and San Joaquin Counties led all U.S. counties in sales. In fact, Fresno County’s agricultural sales were greater than 25 states.

When you travel, it’s likely you’ll want to bring home more than just memories of your trip. If you are someone who likes to bring home souvenirs, mementos, food gifts or other objects from overseas, there’s some important information you need to know. Selecting the wrong kinds of items could bring back more than you bargained for… you may also bring along diseases or invasive species that could threaten forests, farms or even your garden. These seemingly harmless items could devastate United States agriculture.

Growing up in central New Jersey, I loved to eat the fresh fruit from the two pear trees my family grew in our backyard. I found it special that we had the chance to grow these healthy treats at home. Though I didn’t know it at the time, pears grow commercially in almost all 50 U.S. states, and are even the state fruit of Oregon. Even so, anyone who’s ever eaten a fresh, juicy pear knows they’re rather delicate and don’t always travel well.

Pomace, the heavy puree left over after fruits and vegetables are juiced and processed, is used mostly as a feed additive for livestock. The rest of the wet puree is discarded in landfills.

Have you noticed recently that you can’t do much without seeing something related to fruits and vegetables?

Have you ever wondered how new looking and different tasting types of apples or tomatoes come to be? Improvements in taste, size, and color are often the result of years of research and plant breeding efforts. Many times, plant breeders search for traits in older varieties of plants to create new varieties that could be useful today, but not widely grown.

Along the Midcoast of Maine, some people don’t have access to the fruit and vegetables they need for a healthy diet. At the same time, some area farms aren’t able to harvest or sell all of their produce, resulting in wasted food. To remedy this issue, nutrition educators in Maine, supported by funding from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), partner with local organizations and food councils to find solutions to benefit both parties.