Blog Archives

Three family farms in California’s Stemple Creek Watershed recently received much-needed conservation assistance from the Natural Resources Conservation Service through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act).

Six months ago the Apps for Healthy Kids competition called upon Americans to design engaging online or mobile games and tools to educate people of all ages about the importance of healthy eating and physical activity. As part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative, this challenge brought together solvers from across the Nation.

“It is our belief that by supporting our local farmers today, we can ensure that there will be farms in our community tomorrow.” - Kent Myers, former City of Hot Springs Manager

Recently Hot Springs, Arkansas dedicated its new Farmers Market Pavilion at the Historic Downtown Farmers Market in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  This dedication is the culmination of years of effort that began with a Farmers Market Promotion Program grant in 2006 from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service.

Mention the words “hall of fame” to most people, and they’re likely to imagine a stellar baseball player or someone who’s written a string of hit songs.  But at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, we have a Hall of Fame that isn’t about batting averages or popular tunes; it’s about changing the world.

Monmouth, Ill., residents Vicki and Ted Briscoe want to know when their access to the Internet will no longer be hampered by a slow dial up connection. The answer—12 to 18 months—came from Noah Campbell, vice president of community relations for Utopian Wireless Corp, at a talk show-style forum held at the Briscoes’ alma mater Monmouth College Wednesday, Sept. 22.

Cross posted from the FSA blog.

The senior citizen’s centers in seven Kentucky counties are benefitting from fresh produce grown as part of the West Liberty Service Center People’s Garden.

La vida de un niño típico no es nada comparada con la rutina diaria de Tanner Johnson, un chico de 11 años de edad y beneficiario de un Préstamo para Jóvenes de la Agencia de Servicio Agrícola (FSA, por sus siglas en inglés).

USDA Rural Development, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm Service Agency employees delivered a bounty of fresh vegetables to Manna Ministries in Bangor on September 10. It marked the eleventh delivery of garden vegetables this summer. The heaps of fresh tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers and other offerings were from the recent harvest of The People’s Garden, a collaborative effort of the three USDA agencies. In addition, donations from staff members' own gardens were also accepted.

This summer I had the honor of organizing the Feds, Farmers and Friends Feed Families Food Drive for the Southwest Region Food and Nutrition Service.  As the human resources liaison for the region, I don’t get the opportunity to work directly with partners or clients so this food drive gave me a very unique perspective on hunger.  I collected food items, sent out reminders to staff and ensured delivery of the food to the North Texas Food Bank.

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA's rich science and research portfolio.

While driving, have you ever wondered why there are so many fences to interrupt your  soul-satisfying, wide-open-spaces experience?  Until recently, that was the only way to keep livestock in their place, so to speak.  But today’s wire fencing and posts soon will be augmented with virtual fencing that erases these visual barriers from the landscape.