September 2010

Ending childhood obesity within a generation is the central goal of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative. We know achieving this goal requires all of us to work together - parents, teachers, schools, chefs, community leaders, Federal, State and local elected officials and our children - there’s a role for each of us to play.

While touring the facilities of McKechnie Vehicle Components in Kentucky last month, USDA Rural Business and Cooperative Programs Administrator Judy Canales got up close and personal with many of the company’s employees whose jobs were saved thanks to assistance from Rural Development and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The residents of the recently opened Lakeview Terrace Senior Living Community in Boulder City, Nevada, were delighted late last month, to share their opinions of their new home with special guests Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, U.S. Senator Harry Reid, and Congresswoman Dina Titus, who were together at the facility to cut the ribbon at the grand opening ceremony.  More than sixty attended.

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.

When I was growing up on the farm in South Carolina, my family used a very simple method of estimating our production. As long as we planted the same acreage, we assumed that we were getting the same amount of crops at harvest time. But while this approach is still used on some farms, it is impossible to use these assumptions to get reliable state and national production estimates. So how does the USDA go about measuring the yields to get an accurate forecast for the annual crop production?

USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) today announced the availability of nearly $5 million in funds for community-based food and agriculture projects through the Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program (CFP). Applications should: Meet the needs of low-income people by increasing access to fresher, more nutritious food supplies; Increase the self-reliance of communities in providing for their own food needs; Promote comprehensive responses to local food, farm, and nutrition issues; Meets specific state, local, or neighborhood food and agricultural needs for infrastructure improvement and development; Plans for long-term solutions; and/or Create innovative marketing activities that benefit both agricultural producers and low-income consumers.

This story has three parts. Read Part 1 here. Read Part 2 here.

For an hour or so, that’s how it went: on one side of the roof, I smoked the bees and removed capped frames, volunteers ran the capped frames over to the extractor on the other side of the roof, and the extractor team spun the honey out of the trays with the hand-cranked extractor. The centrifuged honey slid down the sides of the extractor into a sweet puddle at the bottom of the metal barrel. Everyone had a turn spinning the extractor (and maybe sneaking a taste of the fresh honey; but I can’t say for sure—I was on the other side of the roof). 

Labor Day is the last “hurrah”—as in, “Hurrah! The hottest January-July period on record worldwide is at an end.” This is documented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but most people felt the heat without official confirmation.

Labor Day is an official holiday dedicated to American workers’ social and economic achievements, and for many parents, it marks a much needed break as the kids return to school. It’s also the last big grilling holiday of the year, so all-in-all, “hurrah” for a great day to relax and grill out.

The Miner County Development Corporation (MCDC) in Howard, South Dakota, broke ground recently on a new learning center complex with the assistance from the American Recovery Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act).  Funding was provided through a USDA Rural Development Business & Industry Loan in the amount of $3.2 million guaranteed through Miner County Bank in Howard.

Cross-Posted from the Let's Move! Blog

Have you ever wanted fresh, local produce but didn’t know how to find the nearest farmers market?  The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) makes it easy with the National Farmers Market search engine, which lists more than 6,100 markets across the nation.  Markets can be searched by name, city, zip code, and several other keyword fields.

La Universidad de Notre Dame es uno de los colegios principales, históricos y más reconocidos en el fútbol colegial Americano. El equipo normalmente juega los juegos de su localidad en el en el Estadio de Notre Dame localizado en el campo de la Universidad de Notre Dame. El estadio tiene una capacidad de 80,795 fanáticos. ¡Que oportunidad para promocionar la Zona de Descubrimiento!