tom vilsack

I just returned from Indianapolis and my first National FFA Convention.  Having missed the first 82 of them, I figured it was about time to see what these folks were up to.  I grew up in a part of northern New Jersey where there was no active FFA presence and where 4-H existed to help the wealthier suburban kids who actually got ponies for Christmas learn how to care for them.

October 20 marked the official launch of the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) at USDA for the Washington, D.C. metro area. Administered by the government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM), CFC is the world’s largest workplace giving program. Since its inception in 1961, federal employees have contributed more than $6 billion to the non-profit community.

This year, USDA has set a goal of raising just under $2 million from its approximately 10,000 employees in the national capital area. The official kickoff on Tuesday morning was an exciting event in the Whitten Building patio featuring top USDA leadership and more than 20 CFC registered non-profit organizations. Secretary Tom Vilsack and Undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics, Dr. Raj Shah, led off the event by speaking movingly about the ways that non-profit organizations touch all of our lives in critical and transformative ways.

Secretary Vilsack credited First Lady Michelle Obama for the beautiful weather in Washington, D.C., as the White House hosted students from seven local schools for the Healthy Kids Fair. The First Lady and USDA teamed up with local chefs and nutritionists for cooking demonstration and nutrition stations as well as physical activities led by representatives from Playworks and the local YMCA.

This week, we celebrate National School Lunch Week to highlight a program paramount to improving the health and well being our Nation’s children. And it’s an effort receiving this important recognition for good reason…

Secretary Vilsack stopped in Knoxville, Iowa, at a Healthier US School Challenge Gold Award school on Monday of National School Lunch Week for a roundtable discussion with school administrators, local, state and federal nutrition program staff, teachers, parents and students representing three schools in the district about improving nutrition in schools and the upcoming Child Nutrition Reauthorization efforts.

Today we are formally launching a new enterprise in USDA science, a National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).  NIFA will be a real agent of transformation in how we do science at USDA, not just in this new agency, but across the board.  As I reflect on this pivotal moment for USDA science, I am reminded of another transformative episode in USDA history:  the Morrill Act of 1862 that created the land-grant university system that has been the scaffold for building the research enterprise we have today.

There were many moving parts in the week-long launch of the USDA-wide initiative Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food (KYF2). In this, my first blog entry, I review the week’s events. It was, in short, a whirlwind.

All too often Americans hear about wildland fires ravaging various corners of the country. Each and every day there are brave men and women working to suppress and prevent wildland fires on a nearly 700 million acres of federal public land – that’s approximately one-fifth of the total land area in the U.S.

On Monday, September 14, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack had the opportunity to meet with 25 leaders of the Jewish community in America including representatives from the Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform traditions, as well as national service organizations. The meeting was a wonderful occasion for the Secretary to further President Obama’s efforts to promote interfaith dialogue and cooperation.

On an early fall day when the rain refused to pass farmers and producers from the DC-metropolitan region gathered for the opening of the FRESHFARM Market by the White House on Vermont Ave. Federal employees, area workers and out-of-town visitors gathered for the festivities despite the weather and were excited for the new program.