Search

This fall, ranchers, farmers, and land managers in the Northern Plains from Bartlett, Nebraska to the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming will be making decisions that will affect their operations in the coming year. Land managers often consider markets, weather and changing climatic conditions...

Most people associate pollination with bees and birds but often forget the work of their furry colleagues: bats. Bats take the night shift, playing a major role in pollinating crops and spreading seeds. One important bat is the Mexican long-nose bat, which dwells in large colonies. Their range...

Confronting climate change will be substantially cheaper and easier if we conserve forests, and the key to that is expert knowledge and science, Undersecretary of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Bonnie told thousands of attendees at the recent 24 th World Congress of the International...

From Shayla Bailey, USDA: This is the twentieth installment of the Organic 101 series that explores different aspects of the USDA organic regulations . To mark the 20 th milestone, USDA invited Dr. Jean Richardson, Chair of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), to be a guest author. The NOSB...

Agricultural data are valuable for analysis, and thanks to the Census of Agriculture and other surveys, NASS has plenty of data available. As a cartographer, however, I obviously prefer to present the data in map form. A map gives anyone a chance to visualize data for multiple geographic areas as a...

At USDA, we spend a lot of time thinking about the next generation of farmers, the challenges they will face, and about the science, technology and knowledge they will need to overcome those challenges. As assistant chief of the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, I help guide this world...

Earlier this week, I hosted a White House Rural Council discussion with farmers, business owners, board members, commodity groups, youth leaders and academics to discuss opportunities for women in agriculture. The group included women and men, conventional farmers and organic producers and...

Those of us who call rural America home know that there’s more to the rural economy than just farms and ranches. From biobased products to rural manufacturing, the potential to grow and make innovative products in rural America is limitless. As part of our commitment to strengthening rural economies...

In the agency’s early days, we used a monthly, 16-page publication called Soil Conservation to share the cutting-edge stories and technologies for taming soil erosion. It was filled with photos and stories about a pillaged Dust Bowl era landscape, and how our agency, now called USDA’s Natural...

The Census of Agriculture is the most complete account of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. Every Thursday USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will highlight new Census data and the power of the information to shape the future of American agriculture. Farming has a...