USDA Blog

The Missouri “Fuels for Schools” projects, funded by Forest Service Recovery Act dollars, are converting aging heating machinery in six schools with woody biomass systems in and around the Ozarks.

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. How does one improve upon perfection? By definition, that’s an impossible task, but a team of scientists is working to help...

When the 65-foot Californian white fir from the Stanislaus National Forest arrives at the Capitol at the start of the holiday season, it will arrive with several thousand of its friends from California. The Californian friends will be ornaments, as many as 5,000, that will decorate the Capitol...

The market for local food – food that is produced, processed, distributed and sold within a specific region, say a radius of several hundred miles – is growing. Large, small and midsized farms are all tapping into it. Even better, new data suggest that these producers are employing more workers than...

The Chesapeake Bay Program and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation recently announced this year’s recipients of the Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants. This year, the program will provide about $3 million in funding, with the Forest Service contributing $300,000.

As the harvest season comes to a close, the People's Garden has a lot to be thankful for this year. Last week, the Initiative’s 'Share Your Harvest' effort passed the one million pound mark of fresh produce donated to local food banks and charities across the country.

Nisha Antoine has always understood the relationship between personal health and public health. As a child with asthma, she spent a lot of time in the emergency room, and she was inspired by her doctors and nurses to want to take care of other children as an adult. From elementary school through...

A recent Food for Progress (FFP) project in Bangladesh shows how a small effort can have a big impact on a community. The Rural Enterprise for Alleviating Poverty project is managed by Winrock International with the help of USDA and the Ministry of Fisheries in Bangladesh. The goal of this project...

Cross-posted from the White House blog Last fall, the President asked that senior Obama administration officials travel the country to hold a series of roundtables on behalf of the White House Rural Council. On November 2nd, I joined a roundtable with local farmers, ranchers, and area business...

The U. S. Forest Service will waive fees honoring those brave men and women who have protected our country and nation’s lands during the long Veterans Day weekend November 11-13 at some recreation sites. This is the third time this year that fees have been waived to encourage visitors to come to a...