2011

Recently I had the opportunity to travel to south Texas to learn first-hand about our Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program.

USDA has successfully eradicated cattle fever in the U.S.  Only a permanent quarantine buffer zone remains in south Texas, which spans 500 miles from Del Rio to Brownsville.  The ticks and disease remain well-established in Mexico, so the buffer zone is necessary to keep U.S. cattle free of cattle fever by preventing the re-establishment of the ticks.

You may have noticed a fresh, new look on USDA.gov last night – we're excited to announce the launch of our redesigned website!  Our redesign team has been hard at work designing a new look and feel that should make navigating our site more user-friendly and intuitive.  In support of our One USDA approach, we strive to provide a consistent, high value online experience that focuses on our users’ top tasks and requests.  One USDA unifies our mission areas and offices to provide all of our stakeholders with a cutting-edge experience that empowers education, decision-making and action.

Not only did One USDA inspire the design of our new website, it also describes the collaborative redesign process.  Using only in-house expertise and resources, the collaborative effort was led by our Web Communications Division and agency web professionals who contributed to the information architecture and design elements, a significant cost savings for the Department.

When landowners have resource problems, they turn to USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and our conservation partners. And when NRCS has challenges, we often turn to our Earth Team volunteers for help. Our more than 30,000 volunteers assist us with conservation planning and technical consultation, outreach and communications, clerical services and hundreds of other tasks.

This is National Volunteer Week and it is the perfect time to recognize our Earth Team volunteers. They do a lot for this agency and our national landscape: They work shoulder-to-shoulder with our conservationists, partners and technicians. They make us a more productive and effective agency and they help create a climate where private lands conservation can continue to succeed.

The USDA Forest Service’s Fuels for Schools and Beyond program promotes and encourages the use biomass to energy as a renewable and natural resource.

Recently the U.S. Forest Service recognized the Darby School District in Montana for success in the Fuels for Schools Program for their innovation, cost savings and energy efficiency and in particular Darby High School’s biomass system. It’s part of a pilot program funded by a grant from the Forest Service’s National Fire Plan. In 2003, the Darby School District was the first in the state to have a biomass system.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spent part of last week in St. Louis, Mo., making several stops to promote trade and agriculture and to announce the opening of a new office in St. Louis for the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

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 USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

Here’s a vision fit for a nightmare:  a “family reunion” of every type of Escherichia coli.

The U.S. Forest Service honored the 2010 Engineer of the Year award recipients at a ceremony held in Washington D.C. Monday, April 4, highlighting the scope and scale of the contributions that engineers make to every program across the agency.

This year’s four recipients display a wide-ranging set of work assignments and responsibilities, and fulfill vital roles in their respective areas. Collectively, these four recipients are responsible for elements of construction, recreation and heritage, contracting and contract management, vehicle and fleet operations and administration, training and technical guidance in their respective assignments. The four recipients for 2010 are:

On April 5, USDA Rural Development in Ohio hosted the first in a series of ‘Flexible Fuels Roadshows’ aimed at broadening awareness of Secretary Vilsack’s recently announced objective of deploying 10,000 flexible fuel blender pumps into the nation’s motor fuel delivery system by 2015. The Secretary’s flex- fuel initiative will become a major focus of Rural Development’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) during the upcoming funding cycle.  For the first time, gas station and convenience store operators across the country can qualify for a package of REAP grants and loans to support the purchase and installation of flex-fuel blender pumps and related infrastructure.

This is the third in a series of three blogs affiliated with USDA’s Agribusiness Trade and Investment Mission, which was led by Acting Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Michael Scuse.

While leading this week’s Agribusiness Trade and Investment Mission to Indonesia, I’ve been gratified to see firsthand how U.S. food and agricultural products are benefitting the Indonesian people. My itinerary included a visit to a tempeh and tofu production compound, or village, in the Cipayung neighborhood of East Jakarta, where local workers are using U.S. soybeans to produce nutritious, affordable, high-quality food products.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development conducted a meeting in Indianapolis in early April to discuss the agency’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).  The event, hosted by the Indiana Soybean Alliance/Indiana Corn Growers Association presented information on RD’s new initiative to fund flex-fuel pumps.  Approximately 50 distributors, grant writers, and stakeholders attended the event.  Representatives from the American Coalition for Ethanol, Dresser Wayne, Gilbarco, Indiana Petroleum Markers & Convenience Store Association, and others joined in the discussion.