USDA Blog

Drum roll please…. The long anticipated winners of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Recipes for Healthy Kids competition were announced this morning by Secretary Vilsack. USDA and the First Lady launched the Recipes for Healthy Kids competition last September, challenging kids, nutrition professionals...

Four more states will be added to the list of project areas under a Farm Service Agency program that encourages producers to establish dedicated energy crops to be used for production of biofuels. Today’s announcement is expected to spark the creation of thousands of new jobs in future production...

The new Farm of the Future project profiles working farms, forests, and ranches that are participating in environmental markets or receiving payments for ecosystem services. In the five case studies just released, landowners changed their management practices to provide water quality, wetlands...

A new report titled Innovations in Watershed-Based Conservation in the United States: Payments for Watershed Services for Agricultural and Forest Landowners was just released by EcoAgriculture Partners with funding and support from USDA’s Office of Environmental Markets (OEM) and the U.S. Endowment...

The 2011 Hurricane Season officially began June 1. If you live in a coastal area, it’s important to be prepared, particularly when it comes to safe food and water. The best strategy for you and your family is to always have a plan in place that everyone knows and that includes these food and water...

The Farm Service Agency will begin accepting nominations for local county committees beginning Wednesday, June 15. The nomination period — which runs through Aug. 1 — allows farmers and ranchers to nominate themselves or others as candidates to sit on the local county committee and help make...

Officials from USDA met with business leaders in Rapid City, South Dakota to seek their input on ways federal, state and local officials can help improve economic conditions and create jobs. The session was the second White House Business Council meeting held; the first was held in Missouri. The...

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 the USDA's rich science and research portfolio.

Petoskey Plastics, owners of a Blackford County-based plastics recycling and manufacturing facility, completed installation last week of a Meteorological (MET) tower at its Hartford City location. The MET tower will measure wind speed, velocity and direction, as well as provide the first precise...

Following his two weeks of Cochran Program training in North Carolina with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS), Chiluba Mwape was able to develop a pest list for Zambia. This has enabled the nation to conduct pest risk assessments for several Zambian fruits and vegetables—the only...