August 2024

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is advancing its leadership in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) across the federal sector. On August 22, 2024, L'Tonya Davis, USDA’s first permanent Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, addressed HR professionals at the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) Training for Excellence Symposium. This year’s event, themed "To the Stars and Beyond," focused on equipping 1,000 HR leaders with the skills needed to address the evolving needs of the nation’s Veterans.

How can the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) build on innovation to better support sustainable American agriculture? Tackling that complex question was the driving force behind our inaugural USDA Innovation Symposium. USDA’s diverse mission requirements in technology and tools make creativity essential in leveraging today’s challenges into opportunities for innovation.

Nichole Espineli is studying for her master’s degree at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her determination, borne from her personal experience with food insecurity, led her to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL) internship this past summer with the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

Last month I attended the Northeast Regional Equity Convening hosted by the USDA and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture on July 18, 2024. This was a unique opportunity to interact with fresh voices and discuss charged and meaningful topics like urban agriculture and nutrition sovereignty.

For nearly 20 years, Dr. Jennie L. Stephens has been a champion in breaking down barriers so that families can build generational wealth and grow working landscapes with their inherited property. South Carolina’s Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation (CHPP™), where Equity Commission Agriculture Subcommittee member Dr. Jennie L. Stephens serves as CEO, helps historically underserved families who jointly own land that is vulnerable to disposition and underutilization.

The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service’s (NASS) Great Lakes Region encompasses Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio – three states with a significant impact on U.S. agriculture and a healthy crop of young producers.

Vanessa Valencia is a recent graduate from Oregon State University who majored in marketing. She is one of 14 students accepted into the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) High School Equivalency Program (HEP)/College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) internship program.

Oklahoma and Texas form one of the nation’s most abundant agricultural regions. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, these two states accounted for 8% of total U.S. agricultural sales. The market value of agricultural products from Texas came to $32.2 billion, 6% of U.S. agricultural sales. In Oklahoma, the market value of agricultural sales reached $8.5 billion, 2% of total U.S. agricultural sales.

When purchasing food, many consumers look for information on where the food came from and how it was produced. No antibiotics, cage-free, and grass-fed are a few marketing claims consumers find on protein-based food packaging. To provide assurance to customers of the validity of these and other claims, producers often enlist the services of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).

In Miami, crops grow 365 days a year. This fact spurred Dr. Maruthi Sridhar Balaji Bhaskar of Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida, to take action to help his students. “We have lots of interest in agriculture here,” said Bhaskar, an associate professor in the FIU Department of Earth and Environment. “I want my students to know what different opportunities are available to them, especially with USDA.”