August 2011

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has declared August as Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month.  Invasive plant pests and diseases are not just a concern of scientists, farmers or horticulturalists; they concern us all.  Invasive pests and diseases of plants—such as Asian citrus pysllid, European grapevine moth, Mediterranean fruit fly, and sudden oak death—can transform communities, harm our economy, and impact human health.

The U.S. Forest Service's Forest Legacy Program, working with Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, the Trust for Public Land, and the Nature Conservancy, and local groups helped permanently protect more than 10,000 acres of Montana forest land on Wednesday, July 27, protecting it for wildlife habitat and future generations of Americans.

Take a large amount of U.S. fruits and vegetables, mix in a group of chefs with a flair for Asian cuisine, add a dash of creativity and what do you get? An amazing array of dishes created as part of the annual USDA Council of Chefs (CoC) Train the Trainer Program in Jakarta, Indonesia. The training was conducted by Chef Mike Fleming, director of the School of Baking Technology at CerealTech in Singapore. The CoC is a group of Indonesian chefs with different culinary backgrounds including nutritionist and author Edwin Handoyo Lauwy (Chef Edwin Lau), hot kitchen chef Muchtar Alamsyah (Chef Tatang), and baking and pastry chefs Ucu Sawitri and Haryanto Makmoer.

A growing consumer appetite for foods grown in their region was the focus of a recent Food and Agricultural Council (FAC) meeting in Valley City, North Dakota.  FAC Chairman, Jasper Schneider, also state director of USDA Rural Development, invited healthy food activists to share the ups and downs of this growing movement.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog:

Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA), a faith-based disaster relief and development organization, celebrated the inauguration of its Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) with a ribbon cutting on Thursday, July 21, at An Nur School in Lanham, Maryland. The ceremony also marked the IRUSA’s support of Let’s Move Faith and Communities, First Lady Michelle Obama’s initiative to engage faith-based and secular non-profit organizations in feeding kids over the summer when school is out.