USDA Blog

As Associate Administrator of USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA), one of my duties is to lead all-employee meetings with the Agency’s field offices across the country. During my travel, I often visit local projects and success stories in agriculture that have connections with USDA projects...

Puerto Rico’s agriculture has been steadily declining and imports total 85 percent of the food consumed on the island. Additionally, almost all of the $11 million per year that USDA purchases for use in Puerto Rico’s school meals are purchased from companies in the continental United States. What’s...

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog: Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA), a faith-based disaster relief and development organization, celebrated the inauguration of its Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) with a ribbon cutting on Thursday, July 21, at An Nur School in Lanham, Maryland. The ceremony also...

Right now, federal employees across the country are banding together to support the “Feds Feed Families” food drive. We’re nearing the end of July, and while the reports coming in look promising, we need to keep pushing ahead. August is right around the corner, which means we only have one more...

During my recent trip to Chicago, I had the great fortune to visit several places that were doing tremendous work with many of USDA’s nutrition programs. One of the first stops was to a local school where children were really excited to learn more about where their food comes from.

The Federal Seed Act (FSA) is a truth-in–labeling law that regulates the interstate shipment of agricultural and vegetable seed. The FSA is enforced with the aid of cooperative agreements between the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and each of the fifty state departments of agriculture...

On July 6 th, I attended an event to kick-off this season’s Summer Food Service Program in Texas and to celebrate the state’s third annual “Mayor’s Challenge” to end child hunger during the summer. The event was held at NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders’ youth camp in Duncanville, Texas.

Yesterday, Secretary Vilsack and Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley hosted Maryland's fourth annual "Buy Local" cook out. The event kicked off Maryland's "Buy Local Challenge Week" which encourages Marylanders to incorporate at least one locally-grown, produced or harvested product into their meals...

As the Associate Administrator for the Risk Management Agency, I visit our offices in all parts of the country. My recent trip to Dallas, Texas, provided an exciting look at a truly amazing agricultural program and astonishing new ideas at Paul Quinn College.

Last week, community leaders from all over the country visited Washington DC to join the White House for the first Hispanic Policy conference in our nation’s history. The goal was to get a dialogue going between administration officials and community leaders on an array of topics of particular...