Blog Archives

Siendo partícipe en la inauguración de la semana nacional dedicada al Programa de Alimentos de Verano (SFSP, por sus siglas en inglés) que se llevo a cabo del 11 al 15 de Junio, estuve en Denver, Colorado, donde visité dos centros de comida estupendos.

As part of the national Summer Food Service Program Kickoff (SFSP) Week June 11-15, I was in Denver, Colorado, and visited two great Colorado SFSP sites.

One of those sites was in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, just west of downtown Denver.  Healing Waters Family Center has a 90 percent Hispanic congregation.  Last summer, after participating in a webinar co-sponsored by USDA and the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), Healing Waters became an SFSP sponsor for the first time and had a very positive experience. 

On a recent visit to North Carolina, USDA Rural Development Utilities Administrator Jonathan Adelstein visited Atlantic Telephone Membership Corporation (ATMC) in Brunswick County, North Carolina.

At USDA, we’re working every day to create jobs and support the American agriculture sector.   One important piece of this effort is our support for a bio-based economy that will help increase business opportunities for farmers and ranchers, and create jobs across our nation.

Today, there are more than 3,000 American companies producing more than 25,000 bio-based products made from renewable sources grown here at home. In turn, their innovation is supporting more than 100,000 American jobs.

Every time you walk into your garden to enjoy a beautiful flower or pick a fruit, think about thanking a bee, butterfly or hummingbird. These and other kinds of animals are pollinators and the subject of USDA’s participation in the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign which celebrates National Pollinator Week June 18-24.

June is Dairy Month.  In agricultural circles, the term “Value-Added” often implies a business venture through which an agricultural producer, or group of producers, further process a commodity in the value-chain that leads to the ultimate consumer.  But sometimes, the value-added of a value-added venture moves well beyond further processing of a commodity.

There are several definitions of home. The one I think best fits the Mountainside House Teen Center in Vermont is “A familiar or usual setting: a congenial environment.”

It’s officially summer and the USDA Farmers Market is back in full swing.  An increasingly popular destination for Washington, D.C., residents and visitors of the National Mall, the market regularly attracts hundreds of customers each Friday during the summer and early fall.  Come see some of your favorite vendors and USDA staff during the 2012 outdoor season.

One of the best things about working for USDA as a deputy under secretary for Rural Development is the ability to meet with so many brilliant business leaders from around the country.  Last week, at the White House, I met with dozens of folks to discuss economic development and community renewal efforts.

We talked about Regional Innovation, one of several topics the Obama Administration is emphasizing to revitalize rural areas. Improving access to capital, building out broadband, developing renewable energy and establishing regional food systems will increase productivity and economic growth in rural America.

I am a scientific illustrator on staff with the Systematic Entomology Lab, in the Plant Sciences Institute, ARS, located in the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History. Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting Secretary Vilsack, who was interested in several of my paintings of newly described species of insects that I entered in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 2012 Employee Art Exhibit.  As I answered his questions, it occurred to me that people may not associate USDA with artistry or illustration and that my job as “Scientific Illustrator” may in fact seem unusual to many.