Blog Archives

Government agencies and organizations in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia have been building water quality trading systems during the past few years to lower the cost of regulatory compliance with water quality laws.

These trading systems enable  farmers, ranchers and forest landowners in these Chesapeake Bay-area states to generate income by selling water quality credits to regulated entities like waste water treatment facilities and developers. As this market matures, people will be able to incorporate clean water into their overall management objectives more seamlessly.

The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, with funding from a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant, is developing tools to make it easier for people who own or manage forests to offer up their forested land for possible water quality and other ecosystem service credits. The alliance is working to streamline the credit development process for water quality trading on forested land in the region.

Good job, farmers and ranchers. As we begin 2014, let’s take a moment to reflect on 2013 with collective pride for conservation well done.

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service provides technical and financial assistance to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners with voluntary conservation practices. These thousands of local, partnerships between NRCS and landowners across the United States add up to make a huge difference.

In cooperation with farmers and ranchers in 2013, NRCS:

In any business venture, the key to reaching a new market is starting with accurate and comprehensive information. For American agricultural producers and suppliers looking at USDA feeding programs as a potential market, having a clear understanding of the rules, regulations and requirements is the best start on the path to success. USDA encourages new businesses to participate by providing information through our websites, publications, and conferences. Recently, we attended Puerto Rico’s 2013 Market Expansion Conference to encourage new businesses to consider our programs.

My agency, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), is part of a team of seven USDA agencies that attended this conference to strengthen Puerto Rico’s agriculture sector.

It’s early into the winter sports season and already there are stories of avalanche victims on the nation’s slopes.

But there are some steps you can take to keep your name and those of your companions out of the statistics record.

The U.S. Forest Service is a partner in the Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month, an effort to encourage children and adults to take lessons to improve their skills. Knowing about avalanches is vital to your safety.

For some, it can be a bit challenging to get in the holiday spirit in Redding, Calif., because the area typically has warm winter temperatures. But this year, residents were treated to a Dec. 6 snowstorm, which offered the Shasta-Trinity National Forest a wintery-white backdrop for its annual Operation Christmas Tree event.

Working in partnership with Shasta County Youth and Families Foster Care, OneSAFE Place (a women’s refuge), and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center, the forest invited 62 local, disadvantaged youth on Dec. 7 to kick off their holiday season on the forest.

The MyPlate Team offers the final “Makeover Monday” recipe this week on the USDA blog and the MyPlate Facebook page.

I love mushrooms and could probably eat them every day. They come in a variety of sizes, shapes, colors, textures, and flavors and can be worked into every meal. On their own, mushrooms are pretty healthful – very low in calories, free of cholesterol and (almost) free of fat. They are also naturally low in sodium, high in potassium, and are generally high in vitamins and minerals.

Stuffing mushrooms just makes something wonderful ever better!  But what you stuff in these tasty little vegetables can make or break the dish. Typically, mushrooms are stuffed with foods containing saturated fats and sodium. So, if you’re trying to watch one or both of these in the New Year, consider various herbs and spices!

As a mother and a grandmother, and as a school nutrition professional who has served at the local, state and national levels, I know the unique challenges and rewards that come along with helping to raise children—particularly when it comes to good nutrition.

Feeding kids, and feeding them well, can be tough, but I am proud to say that with the strong support of parents, our schools are making a real difference in the health of our nation’s children.

We at USDA have been working closely with schools during the transition to the updated meals. We have listened to school nutrition professionals, teachers, administrators, parents and students themselves. We have made tweaks and changes to the new meals along the way, based on feedback from their real world experiences.

When Anna Jones-Crabtree and Doug Crabtree founded Vilicus Farms in 2009, they snagged the farm’s name from Latin, as “vilicus” means steward. Anna and Doug are definitely stewards of their 1,200-acre organic farm near Havre, Mont.

In a region where wheat is the primary crop and stretches as far as the eye can see, Vilicus Farms is unique. They work on a five-year rotation of about 15 different crops, including flax, lentils, oats, red spring wheat, durum, sweet clover, vetch, peas, rye, winter wheat, buckwheat, safflower, sunflower, spring peas and chickling vetch.

The farm is divided into strips about one mile long and 240 feet wide, and the Crabtrees grow one crop in each strip. Between the strips are untilled sections of native grazing land that serve as buffers to catch snow in the winter for added moisture.

As 2013 comes to a close and 2014 draws nearer, many people begin to think about ways in which to make their lives better in the year to come and formulate various resolutions to achieve those goals. Some people may want to lose weight and/or get more exercise. Other people may want to read more and spend less time in front of the television or computer. There are just as many types of resolutions as there are types of people, but there are four easy resolutions that can help everyone have a safer and healthier New Year.

Resolve to fight foodborne illness by following these four basic messages of safe food preparation.

Según el 2013 llega a su fin y el 2014 se acerca, muchas personas comienzan a pensar en formas para mejorar sus vidas en el año por venir y formular diversas resoluciones para alcanzar dichos objetivos. Algunas personas quieren querer bajar de peso y/o hacer más ejercicio. Otras personas pueden querer leer más y gastar menos tiempo frente al televisor o la computadora. Sólo hay tantos tipos de resoluciones, como hay tipos de personas, pero hay cuatro resoluciones fáciles que pueden ayudar a todos a tener un año nuevo más seguro y saludable.

Decida luchar contra la enfermedad transmitida por  los alimentos siguiendo estos cuatro mensajes básicos en la preparación de alimentos.