USDA Blog

Support your health with good nutrition while spending less money. Nutrition.gov has resources to help you get the best price on produce and cook tasty, low-cost recipes while staying at home to protect yourself and others and slow the spread of COVID-19. Fit fruits and vegetables into your food...

You can now apply for USDA’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, which provides direct payments to farmers and ranchers to offset impacts from the coronavirus pandemic. Applications will be accepted through August 28, 2020.

It’s National Salsa Month! If you missed Salsa Day, no worries, Americans enjoy salsa all year long. Use this recipe to create a delicious pairing for chips, eggs, steak, chicken, shrimp, or salmon, and see the latest agricultural statistics for each ingredient. A condiment for all seasons and any...

Last month I discussed the impact of COVID-19 on availability and prices of food based on data and information we had available at the time. Since then, USDA released its first assessment of U.S. and world crop supply and demand prospects and U.S. prices for 2020/21, and more data on market prices...

In April 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded and heavily contaminated nearly 40,000 square miles with radioisotopes. The contaminated area became known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine and the Polesie Radioecological Reserve in Belarus. Today, the site remains...

By now, many of us have heard several times that washing hands with soap and water is an effective way to get rid of germs, including those that cause foodborne illness. We are advised to wash our hands often, especially before and after handling food. This advice is easy to follow when we have...

During the COVID-19 health crisis, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), school districts, and communities across the country have been working tirelessly to ensure that children have access to food.

Mount St. Helens, in Washington State, erupted 40 years ago today. The largest landslide in recorded history filled valleys below with debris, and ash fell from the sky for weeks, blanketing the nearby area and affecting regions as far away as the Rocky Mountains. Within just two weeks, ash from the...

There are many amazing things in nature, and a USDA scientist in California is exploring evidence that Bing cherries contain some wonderous health possibilities.

Ventura County, California, is an agricultural powerhouse. In 2017, its revenues from agriculture were an estimated $2.1 billion. It also faces extraordinary population pressure, with nearly 450 people per square mile – about five times the average population density of the United States. Both...