agricultural marketing service

Thanksgiving is for family and time-honored traditions. The greatest tradition is the centerpiece to your meal – turkey. Over 2,500 American turkey farms work to bring just the right bird to your table. Here are tips to help you select your turkey and pointers to manage leftovers.

Farmers markets not only offer some of the freshest produce and vegetative products you can find, but they also create opportunities to buy locally, and support small farmers, ranchers, and agricultural businesses. As you explore farmers markets in your area, it is important to keep food safety top of mind. Germs that cause foodborne illness can grow rapidly in temperatures between 40 and 140°F. According to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), adhering to food safety guidelines may reduce the risk of foodborne illness. FSIS serves as the lead food safety agency within USDA and conducts broad range of food safety activities to ensure everyone’s food is safe.

Join Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) Pesticide Data Program (PDP) in celebrating their 30^th anniversary! Since 1991, the program has monitored pesticide residues in the U.S. food supply, with a focus on sampling foods most consumed by infants and children.

Before coming to the USDA National Organic Program (NOP), Laura Gallagher worked on farms and with community gardening organizations in the Midwest and Northeast providing training and education. Now Laura helps NOP manage the Organic Integrity Learning Center (OILC) and the Human Capital Capacity Building Initiative to help build the future of the organic workforce.

October is National Pork Month! America’s pork producers play a major role in feeding the world, and this month we honor their hard work and dedication to providing high quality products to consumers. Collectively, they generate 13% of the world’s pork supply, making the United States the world’s third largest producer and consumer of pork products.

The Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) mission is to create domestic and international marketing opportunities for U.S. producers of food, fiber, and specialty crops. To accomplish this mission, AMS supports farmers markets in four ways.

The Secretary proclaimed the first week of August as National Farmers Market Week (PDF, 146 KB) as a way to champion the direct-to-consumer producers, market managers, and customers that make their communities come alive during market days.

To be competitive in today’s marketplace, U.S. cattle producers and everyone in the supply chain need reliable data to make informed decisions. USDA provides in-depth market data through the Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR) program, which delivers critical market intelligence on price trends, as well as supply and demand conditions.

What does organic certification really mean for a farm? In Lars Crail’s experience as a central California organic pear farmer turned NOP Accreditation Division Audit Supervisor, going organic transformed his orchard and led to a new career helping others achieve organic success.

Sitting down for the Super Bowl on Feb. 7 might look a little different this year, but one thing remains the same: you need the perfect game day protein to fuel up for the Big Game. America has spoken and it’s down to chicken wing or pork rib - which team will you be on?