USDA Blog

I began this year by discussing the SNAP Stewardship Solutions Project , our ongoing efforts to further improve Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) integrity. Halfway through the year, we have made significant progress: we are requiring more frequent reviews of higher risk retailers...

Employees of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in South Dakota have a knack for seeing opportunities in the landscape. And recently, two of them initiated a highway beautification and pollinator habitat project. In 2010, Assistant State Conservationist for Field Operations Curt...

Cross posted from the White House Blog: This week is National Small Business Week. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), along with agencies across the Obama Administration, are hosting events in five cities. These events provide expert advice, mentoring and explore topics ranging from...

Recently, 1,400 goats reported for duty with the U.S. Forest Service. Their mission: Lend their appetites to the removal of fuels buildup on the Cleveland National Forest. The goats were a part of a 100-acre forest-thinning project that begin in late April to clear a 300-foot community fuel break...

Today, I am in Athens, Georgia, visiting the University of Georgia (UGA) and meeting with university leaders, faculty, and students to learn about the great work being done here to advance agriculture and solve some of our most pressing challenges. NIFA has a long history of investing in...

Every day, USDA provides assistance to help grow American agriculture and increase opportunities for rural communities. Unfortunately, 90 percent of America’s persistent poverty counties are in rural America. Earlier this year, we launched the StrikeForce Initiative for Rural Growth and Opportunity...

Eighty-five percent of all flowering plants depend on pollinators, like bees and bats, to reproduce. But these critical pollinators are in trouble as habitat loss, disease, parasites and environmental contaminants are causing a decline of many species, including some of the more than 4,000 species...

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. Some say careers in agriculture are a thing of the past, but don’t tell that to Krish Jayachandran, a professor and co...

From the top of Limestone Ridge, 6,000 feet up, the scars of a massive wildfire on Arizona’s White Mountain Apache Reservation in east central Arizona are still visible. As far as the eye can see are bare mountain ranges where century-old ponderosa pines once stood. A decade ago, the Rodeo-Chediski...

With a view of majestic mountains in the background, visitors to the Cranberry Mountain Nature Center of the Monongahela National Forest find themselves immersed in a bevy of beautiful plants in bloom and fluttering monarch butterflies. Beneath the natural grandeur, a very essential ecosystem...