rural development

The life of a typical young boy is nothing compared to the daily routine of 11-year-old Farm Service Agency (FSA) Youth Loan recipient, Tanner Johnson. 

We recently marked the final day of Feds Feed Families Campaign.

José Otero-García, USDA Rural Development State Director for Puerto Rico, led the efforts of the Campaign that included the help from our sister Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). We collected 500 pounds of food and more is on the way.

In the 14^th century the Hisat’sinom people, ancestors of the Hopis, found themselves on the sandy slopes of a rich flood plain while on their migration north. This beautiful location in the Little Colorado River Valley was so compelling that the people stayed and established a community they called Homolovi—“Place of the Little Hills”.

For most of its 130-year existence, the city of Adrian, Minn., has had the services of a hometown pharmacist. That is, until the local pharmacy was forced to close in 2008.

I am winding through rural roads in extreme northwest Missouri, away from any large city, in the middle of the country, basically out in the middle of nowhere as some would say, and I am thinking about the investment Rural Development is making; thinking about the amount of money we have provided to the community of Fairfax, population 645 and the county of Atchison, population 6,430. The total investment is almost $39 million for a new hospital, regional wholesale water system, and city distribution system.

USDA Rural Development officials joined Greg Bell, Lieutenant Governor of the State of Utah recently at the 2010 Native American Summit held in Ogden.  This historic gathering provided an opportunity to meet with Utah’s tribal Leaders, and explore the means available for USDA to become a more effective partner in delivering services and addressing tribal needs.

I recently joined David Fink, at his Heidel Hollow Farm in Germansville. The family-owned, 1600 crop acre hay farm was awarded two USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grants totaling $231,230. The grants will be used toward a solar energy project that will provide approximately 252,869 KW of electricity used in the hay compressing operation of the farm. David will also be able to replace one diesel engine with five electric motors, saving over 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year.  Both projects will significantly reduce the farm’s energy costs. 

The Administrator for USDA’s Rural Business and Cooperative Programs, Judy Canales was in Louisiana recently to tour Game Equipment, a Rural Development –funded project in Donaldsonville.  Louisiana Rural Development State Director, Clarence W. Hawkins; Jeff Jobe, Regional Coordinator of USDA Business programs; Peachy Melancon, wife of Congressman Charlie Melancon; Anne Perry, Regional Representative of Louisiana Economic Development Office (LED); John Broussard, Business and Cooperative Programs  Director; Lee Jones, Assistant to State Director and lenders were also on the tour. 

As the end of a very successful Federal fiscal year approaches, Mississippi Rural Development State Director Trina N. George and her senior staff held a briefing for staff members for offices of Mississippi's Congressional delegation in the offices of USDA Rural Development in Jackson. 

USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan joined Senator Jack Reed and North Tiverton, Rhode Island Fire District Moderator James Donnelly on Friday, September 10 to cut the celebratory, ceremonial ribbon that was wrapped around the towns’ new pump station.