January 2010

The USDA, the National Football League and the National Dairy Council (NDC) teamed up today for a event in New York City to promote their joint Fuel Up to Play 60 child nutrition campaign.

The first of four jobs forums in Alaska, sponsored by the USDA Farm Service Agency and Rural Development attracted an audience of about 80 on Thursday.  Participants turned out in Fairbanks to testify about job creation, braving temperatures of -30.

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is applying the final touches on the Be Food Safe exhibit (booth #1704) for the NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 16 – 17 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  The event is free to the public.

A standing room only crowd welcomed Congressman Rick Boucher of the 9^th District in Virginia and Ellen M. Davis, State Director for Rural Development at the January 12^th funding event in Wytheville, Virginia. The ceremony highlighted the very first USDA Guaranteed Multi-Family Housing loan in the state.

Approximately 25 Wyoming residents attended a forum on job creation that was hosted by USDA Rural Development and the Farm Service Agency. The forum was held at a hotel in Casper on January 12^th, 2010 as a follow up to President Obama’s December 3^rd White House briefings on job creation.

Today, the work of scientists from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), our State Land Grant Universities, and the Department of Energy (DOE) is featured as the cover story in the prestigious science journal, Nature.  I am very proud and excited that USDA science played an important part in unlocking the genetic secrets of one of the world’s most important crops, the soybean.

Over 25 members of the Colorado Agricultural Council joined Rural Development State Director, Jim Isgar and Farm Services State Executive Director Trudy Kareus for a Presidential Forum on job creation and economic growth at the State Office in Lakewood, CO.

Two community forums on jobs and economic growth are being held in Oregon as a follow up to President Obama’s December 3 White House briefings on job creation.

Many dug out of snow drifts and bundled up due to temperatures well below zero on Saturday to attend the Tri-State Jobs & Economic Development Forum in St. Louis hosted by USDA Rural Development (RD) and Farm Service Agency (FSA) of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.  The forum was held in conjunction with the Missouri Governor’s Conference on Agriculture.

One hundred and fifteen people from Georgia and South Carolina attended a U.S. Department of Agriculture-sponsored Presidential Roundtable Forum on job creation at Augusta State University earlier this week.

About 25 community leaders brainstormed solutions to high unemployment numbers and the impact on rural areas, while extra chairs were added as people continued to arrive.