FSA

In early May, USDA agency directors appeared before the Pennsylvania Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. The Committee, chaired by Pennsylvania Senator Elder Vogel, Jr., heard agency heads discuss various USDA programs. Senator Vogel recently introduced a resolution honoring the USDA on...

Compost tea (a mixture of recycled organic matter soaked in water), hydroponic living basil, and organic certification are terms that, at first glance, may not have much of a connection to military veterans. Colin Archipley, a decorated Marine sergeant, and his wife Karen however saw the combination...

Six. That’s the total number of name changes the Farm Service Agency has seen since its birth in 1933. With each change came new responsibilities, new programs and new incentives for farmers and ranchers to produce affordable food and fiber for U.S. consumers. The 1929 stock market crash combined...

As rural communities begin to shake off the remnants of a record-breaking winter, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development – along with several sister agencies – held the first of several Alaska Tribal Collaboration meetings in Bethel on Friday, April 13. In a state home to nearly half...

USDA’s Chief Economist Joseph Glauber and his staff advise the Secretary on economic issues but are also charged with producing official USDA supply and demand projections and forecasts. The Office of the Chief Economist’s (OCE’s) monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report...

April 16, 2012, was a memorable day for Willie F. Cooper, state executive director (SED) for the Louisiana Farm Service Agency. Yesterday marked 40 years as SED for FSA and the former Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS). In August, Cooper will celebrate 55 years of total...

There’s a lot that a farmer can grow in northeast Arkansas. Most producers choose rice and cotton. Some plant soybeans, corn and sorghum; row crops, mostly, according to Charles Glover, manager, Ritter Agribusiness. Glover works with landowners, their tenants and producers who farm 40,000 acres...

If you teach it, you must live it. That is the wisdom Steven R. Kochemba adheres to. Kochemba is a science teacher and the athletic director for the Joseph Badger School District in Trumbull County north of Youngstown, Ohio. He’s also a farmer. Among his other science courses, Kochemba teaches 8 th...

The Biomass Crop Assistance Program, or BCAP, is still in its infancy, but its potential success has producers and businesses wanting more. “We have people on a waiting list,” said Tim Wooldridge, Arkansas project manager with MFA Oil Biomass. MFA was selected by USDA to manage three of nine project...

It all started with a little red wagon and six pumpkins. Growing up on his family’s farm in Suamico, Wis., Brian Gronski’s family had a large garden and five acres of pick your own raspberries. One year, Gronski’s father provided his sons with a small spot to grow their own vegetables, which...