July 2017

USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, popularly known as WIC, is once again celebrating World Breastfeeding Week, August 1-7. This year’s theme is Sustaining Breastfeeding Together, emphasizing the importance of family and community support for breastfeeding women.

Every month, USDA shares the story of a woman in agriculture who is leading the industry and helping other women succeed along the way. This month, we hear from Anne Hazlett, Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development.

Byrhonda Lyons of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service contributed this blog on USDA’s work in conservation partnerships.

When Mike and Kathy Landini packed their belongings into friends’ trucks and left Concord, Calif., for Elk Creek, Calif., they had no idea what their new life would bring. They were looking for a quieter place to raise their children. 

Family farms remain an essential feature of agriculture in the United States. Family farms make up 99 percent of America’s 2.1 million farms and 89 percent of agricultural production. Most farms in the United States are small: 90 percent are small family farms that operate nearly half of America’s farmland.

The Metro Denver Area – seven counties along Colorado’s Front Range – is full of nature and people, and growing rapidly. Consistently ranked as one of the fastest growing regions in the nation, Metro Denver is home to just over 3 million people. By 2020 the region’s population should crown 3.3 million, attracting millennials, our future workforce, in droves.

(NIFA is accepting proposals for conferences to identify opportunities and bottlenecks in generating, managing, and integrating data within the food and agricultural system. NIFA will also consider research proposals that apply or enhance big data activities and efforts. Applications submitted to the 2017 Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Foundational Program will be accepted through the deadlines as specified for specific program areas.)

We live in an age in which large volumes of information—“big data”—are generated and collected rapidly to add value to our daily lives. Industry has harnessed data to target advertising, tailor medical treatments, and even develop the technology and infrastructure that allows us to carry miniature computers in our pockets that will pause active functions to accept incoming phone calls.

Alaska’s Southeast Island School District operates four bioenergy-heated greenhouses in Thorne Bay, Kasaan, Naukati Bay, and Coffman Cove. Each greenhouse provides fresh produce to the school cafeteria and surrounding communities, jobs for district students, and an opportunity for teachers to bring textbooks to life.

The National Feral Swine Damage Management Program, within the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Wildlife Services (WS) program, has unleashed detector dogs as a new tool to help stop the spread of feral swine, one of the United States’ most destructive and ravenous invasive creatures.

When a family packs up their car for a trip out to their national forests and grasslands, they create more than just memories. They create jobs.

Nearly three-quarters of Americans live within 100 miles of a national forest or grassland. Every year national forests and grasslands receive nearly 150 million visits, most of which, about 85 percent, are for recreational purposes.