Blog del USDA

Logan Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas, is pretty special, in my estimation. It’s is a great example of what a growing number of schools across the country are doing to tackle the obesity crisis gripping our kids and help their students develop healthy lifestyles.

Ed. Note: Building on the President’s commitment to address issues important to rural Americans, Administration officials are visiting state fairs all summer. See a map of where we've been so far, and hear from SBA Deputy Administrator Johns about her recent visit to the Indian State Fair: Having...

Secretary Tom Vilsack’s sunny office overlooking the National Mall set the perfect background this morning for Elisabeth Hagen’s first moments as USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety. While her husband, Dr. Daniel Gabbay, proudly held the Bible on which she was sworn in, Dr. Elisabeth Hagen was...

The final USDA Feds, Farmers and Friends Feed Families event, a food sculpture contest, was held August 19, at the Whitten Patio, in the USDA National Office in Washington, D.C. There were five USDA Agency teams competing. USDA Rural Development took first place! We had a great team that planned and...

One of our Nation's most pressing health challenges today is obesity with one in three children in America either overweight or obese. Low-income individuals are particularly at-risk. That’s why First Lady Michelle Obama launched Let’s Move! The campaign mobilizes the combined resources of the...

Michigan has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs over the last few years, so it’s always nice to celebrate an occasion when we add jobs to this sector. Earlier this week, USDA Rural Development State Director for Michigan James J. Turner announced two guaranteed loans totaling $7,785,000...

As the head of USDA’s statistical agency, I know that comprehensive, accurate and timely statistical data are some of the most valuable tools in helping to “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food.” The statistics collected and published by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) help tell the...

Hardy Telecommunications, Inc., a nonprofit rural telephone cooperative, was recently awarded a $9,494,483 loan and a $22,153,791 grant through USDA Rural Development’s Telecommunications program. This funding was made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ( Recovery Act).

Several Rural Development funded project sites in were visited by officials from Washington, D.C. in Texas recently to highlighted USDA’s commitment to strengthening rural communities.

Cross-posted from the White House Blog I’ve spent the last few days here in Iowa, a state that I was honored to serve as Governor for eight years. Yesterday, I walked the grounds of the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. The fair is refreshingly the same each year, but also a snapshot of changing rural...