USDA Blog

The Weeks Act 100-mile Legacy Trail has recently been unveiled as a virtual self-guided driving tour of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The tour is named after the watershed conservation legislation of 1911 known as the Weeks Act that led to the creation of national forests east of the...

Rural America has great potential in helping the U.S. meet the future energy demand by deploying alternative energy and energy efficiency sources and practices, so says U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Under Secretary for Rural Development, Dallas Tonsager, who visited the Pacific Northwest National...

On my first visit to Cameroon, I had been asked to speak at the formal opening of the Imperial Foods noodle plant—a public-private partnership that helps to illustrate how USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) serves American agriculture in markets around the world.

I was pleased to receive this statement in support of Secretary Vilsack’s appointment of members to the Council for Native American Farming and Ranching (CNAFR) from Ross Racine Executive Director of the Intertribal Agriculture Council. “The addition of CNAFR to the USDA available tools should...

Some of the most passionate advocates for USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service are our partners across the country. I realized that when I sat down yesterday with our hunger fighting partners in rural Greeley, Colorado. The town sits in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains in Weld County, among some of...

Cross posted from the White House blog: At USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service we are committed to keeping our vital nutrition assistance programs available to those who need them most. One way to do that is to ensure access. Another is to ensure integrity—Americans expect us to serve those in need...

Last Friday I visited Watsonville, California. As people know, I like to get outside the Beltway and visit with people to see how USDA programs are working. My first stop was Driscoll’s Cassin Ranch, the site of the company’s plant breeding program. We had a roundtable discussion about the many...

Indiana State Office staff members of Natural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Service Agency, Rural Development, and the Risk Management Agency gathered in Indianapolis earlier this week to commemorate the 150 th anniversary of the Department of Agriculture. Following a luncheon, “Women in...

Being first can have its advantages and disadvantages. Relinda Walker knows that all too well. Walker’s Organic Farm was one of the first organic operations in South Georgia. It took root in 2005 during a time when eating organic was for foodies and white table cloth chefs.

How does a community, business owner, tourist attraction, farmer, homeowner go on after the disastrous 2011 Missouri River flood? At a news conference on May 17, the message was clear: it took determination, community strength and perseverance. With great pride, communities and businesses announced...