Blog Archives

Last month the White House and the USDA hosted the “Recognition of Manufacturing Success in Rural America” event at the White House Eisenhower Executive Office building in Washington, DC.  The ceremony recognized 46 rural manufacturing companies that have made outstanding contributions to the economy and job sustainability in their communities.

Every five years USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service asks millions of people around the country to fill out the Census of Agriculture. And inevitably, we get millions of questions about it. This time around, we are taking advantage of communication tools that weren't available to us last time and turning to Twitter to answer questions that farmers and ranchers may have. After all, times are changing and more and more operations have online access with each passing year.

Today at 1 p.m. EST, we will spend an hour on our agency’s Twitter account (@usda_nass) answering questions about the 2012 Census of Agriculture. We’d love to hear from all of you to address any concerns, reservations or just simple inquiries you may have about participating in the Census. To make sure that we see your questions, simply add the #AgCensus tag to your tweet.

Bhutan is a small mountainous kingdom nestled in the Himalayas. Some people know it as the country that measures gross national happiness in addition to its gross domestic product. Others may have heard about its innovative, eco-friendly approach to tourism or of its Dragon King’s royal wedding in 2011.

“La esperanza nunca debe atrasarse.”

“Hope should never be deferred.”

For years the Pinal Hispanic Council (PHC) had to defer building a new behavioral health clinic in Eloy, Arizona. They couldn’t afford to fund it.

Living snow fences, installed with the help of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), can be a life saver for residents of El Paso and Elbert counties during Colorado’s often blustery winters.

A partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Land O’Lakes International Development has helped revive a Mozambique dairy farming tradition and raised small-scale farmers’ monthly incomes by an average of 225 percent.

Yesterday, I had my first-ever “virtual conversation.” It included Jon Carson, Director of Public Engagement for the White House; Sam Kass, Senior White House Advisor on Food Policy, and 60 other local food practitioners. We came together to talk about the new Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass and were joined “virtually” by hundreds of others using the Twitter hashtag #KYF2.  The result?  An exciting and inspirational conversation about USDA’s work on local and regional food systems involving people from around the country.

It’s no secret that participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has experienced significant growth over the past 10 years.  In fact, the December 2011 participation showed that 46.5 million people received SNAP benefits.

What has caused these increases?  During 2011, the increases were primarily due to unemployment and more people in need as well as those recovering from natural disasters such as Hurricane Irene and tropical storm Lee who are receiving SNAP disaster benefits.  SNAP was designed for just such situations.  It expands to meet needs of families during tough economic times and contracts as circumstances improve.  As the economy continues to improve and add jobs, families who are now struggling to put food on the table will no longer need assistance.

Did you know that the average DC commuter spends an average of 5.5 hrs each week stuck in traffic and that Americans around the country who commute to work emit approximately 1 ton of pollutants each year?

Telework helps to keep our skies blue and our roads open- all while still continuing to perform the important work we do each and every day at the Department of Agriculture.

And how important that is for all of us as USDA employees who work so hard to support the conservation of our natural resources, the preservation of our National forests and wildlife- not to mention to sustain our country’s agricultural production.  By virtue of our commitment to USDA, to the American public who we serve and to our families and communities- we should all be committed to finding effective and efficient ways to work.