FFA

Several Rural Development funded project sites in were visited by officials from Washington, D.C. in Texas recently to highlighted USDA’s commitment to strengthening rural communities.

By Wayne Maloney, Office of Communications Officials from USDA and the Department of Education met at the Agriculture Department yesterday with National FFA student leaders from across the country. The students are visiting Washington, D.C., for the annual National FFA State President’s Conference...

USDA Agriculture Secretary Vilsack kicked off the third in a series of five workshops on competition in agriculture today. Speaking to a packed house of more then 500 small and large dairy farmers, FFA members and members of the public at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Vilsack highlighted...

A new People’s Garden was planted in west/central Kentucky this past Memorial Day weekend. The garden is located on the greenhouse business property of Meredith Agriculture in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. This new People’s Garden is a project of Meredith Agriculture and Central Hardin High School FFA...

I recently returned from Nairobi, where I got a firsthand look at USDA's food aid programs. Due to volcanic ash in Europe, my arrival was delayed by 36 hours. I tried to outmaneuver the cloud by taking the scenic route -- Washington to Boston to Amsterdam to Paris to Nairobi. While I enjoyed my...

Yesterday was a landmark day for USDA. The 2010 Agricultural Outlook Forum kicked off near Washington with a top-flight list of speakers, including Secretary Tom Vilsack; Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan; Ambassador Ronald Kirk, U.S. Trade Representative; USDA Chief Economist Joseph Glauber and...

I just returned from Indianapolis and my first National FFA Convention. Having missed the first 82 of them, I figured it was about time to see what these folks were up to. I grew up in a part of northern New Jersey where there was no active FFA presence and where 4-H existed to help the wealthier...

John Brewer, associate administrator and general sales manager for the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of USDA recently paid a visit to the students of the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences (CHAS) to see firsthand the value of agriculture education. The school was excited to have Mr...

Secretary Vilsack spoke this morning at the Future Farmers of America State Presidents' meeting. He had the opportunity to meet with FFA's national and state leaders, and took a few minutes to congratulate them on their election to leadership posts in an organization of more than 500,000 active...