NIFA

As 2019 comes to a close and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) celebrates our tenth year (see this USDA blog for more on NIFA’s history), we reflect on our successes of agricultural research, education, and Extension (also referred to as the Cooperative Extension System) and our...

Good things come in small packages. Sadly, so do bad things. That’s where Iowa State University’s (ISU) Department of Mechanical Engineering comes in.

On October 1, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) celebrated our tenth anniversary. Ten years ago, we replaced the former Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service when Congress established NIFA through the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Pub. L. No...

The digital divide between population centers and rural America is a fact of life. For some, it’s simply a lack of cell phone coverage; for others, it signals a lack of education for their children.

A major war was fought in 2014-2015, with more than 200 battlefields and millions casualties in the United States alone. You may not have seen much of it on the news, but there’s a good chance your wallet felt it.

Wildfires blackened nearly 8.8 million acres in the United States last year, highlighted in the news by California’s Camp Fire, the deadliest in that state’s history.

Researchers have been working for well over a decade to enhance the health of pollinators and now beekeepers, citizen scientists, and anyone interested in pollinator health can join in using a new online tool, Beescape.

Military-connected youth have an exciting opportunity to join other members of the military family this summer. These residential and day camps will develop skills and teach the campers new techniques that will help prepare them to be productive citizens.

The word “agriculture” does not usually come to mind when one thinks of forests, but perhaps it’s time that it should. “The forest products industry employs nearly 1 million people and contributes $254 billion to America’s economy through sales and payroll,” said Eric Norland, a national program...

Technology always changes the way we think and how we do things. Now, thanks to research at Michigan State University (MSU), farmers have a new tool to determine precisely where to focus their efforts… or not. The result can save them money and save the environment from excess – wasted – fertilizer.