USDA Blog

Community members and organizations of Monroe County in Wisconsin have teamed up to create Monroe On the GO (MOGO). MOGO is a coalition dedicated to increasing access to healthy, affordable foods, one of the pillars of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative. As a Let’s Move Faith and...

When it comes to supporting the American agricultural economy and its communities, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is all in. Here at AMS, we have several grant programs that producers and other organizations can utilize to help increase the competitiveness of their businesses.

While fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a relatively limited problem, any amount of waste or abuse is too much. As I wrote back in December, we are taking more aggressive steps to root out fraud and abuse as part of this administration’s Campaign to Cut Waste and to...

In 2010, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture developed a plan to help local growers find new opportunities to bring their fresh, healthy food to consumers and markets within the state. They partnered with Rutgers University’s Food Innovation Center and the New Jersey Department of Family and...

Cross posted from the Huffington Post Food blog: This week I was at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago to talk about the business of local food. The conversation focused on how USDA and other federal agencies can work together with the private sector to harness the economic potential of local food...

There’s a new menu item in town for the Super Bowl: white bean chili made with organic beans and vegetables. The push to bring organic and locally-grown options to the concession stand came from a partnership between non-profits that support family farms, celebrities and Centerplate, the NFL’s...

This month marked an important step forward for the health and well-being of our nation’s youngsters. USDA announced changes to improve the quality of school lunches that are served to 32 million American children each day. This will help them learn and better prepare them for the jobs of the 21 st...

Earlier today, I had the honor of joining non-profit organizations, state and federal agencies, institutions, CEOs and others involved with agriculture and economic development to kick off the “The Many Faces of Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” conference hosted at the Federal Reserve Bank of...

During a recent visit to Oregon, USDA’s Director for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Max Finberg, visited the Food Innovation Center in Portland, where researchers are helping producers get local edibles on the shelf. The Food Innovation Center (FIC), an experiment station administered...

Last week was an exciting week for America’s school lunchrooms. Our new meal standards were announced and they will help improve the health of millions of children. These new standards represent one of five major components of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. There’s more to come: The...