Maryland

A statistician’s work is never done. Just as we are starting to wrap up data collection for the 2012 Census of Agriculture, interviewers representing the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) are already visiting thousands of farmers across the United States to find out their 2013 planting...

Depending on who you talk to, there are between 16,000 and 20,000 vacant homes in Baltimore. Once a mid-20 th century boomtown where residents built the liberty ships and liberator bombers that helped win World War II, the middle-class dreams of this city have been in a decades-long decline. Entire...

Kirby Wells knew that if he wanted future generations of Wellses to enjoy the family’s land on Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore, something had to change. The 1,700 acres Wells’ grandfather had purchased in 1941, then drained and planted with loblolly pines was rapidly losing value. In 2006, the family...

Recently I had a great opportunity to attend a meeting of Maryland’s Partnership to End Childhood Hunger. Led by Governor Martin O’Malley’s Office for Children, the Partnership "table" brings together state agencies, USDA, local non-profit organizations such as food banks, advocacy groups, and the...

The Forest Service and Missoula Children’s Theatre partnered once again for a special performance of the play The Secret Garden recently at Harmony Hall Regional Center in Fort Washington, Md. “The Missoula Children’s Theatre and Forest Service partnership is a natural fit because so many of our...

I’m thrilled that I could join Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan last week when we announced the recipients of the People’s Garden Grant Program in Baltimore, Maryland. The backdrop for the $60,000 grant announcement to Towson University was set at the Eat Healthy Live Healthy Urban...

Earlier this fall, USDA Rural Development Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager traveled to Delaware and Maryland to tour two USDA funded wastewater system projects located in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Right now, federal employees across the country are banding together to support the “Feds Feed Families” food drive. We’re nearing the end of July, and while the reports coming in look promising, we need to keep pushing ahead. August is right around the corner, which means we only have one more...

Yesterday, Secretary Vilsack and Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley hosted Maryland's fourth annual "Buy Local" cook out. The event kicked off Maryland's "Buy Local Challenge Week" which encourages Marylanders to incorporate at least one locally-grown, produced or harvested product into their meals...

At the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we are looking for new ways to help America’s producers succeed every single day. We want farmers and growers with operations of all sizes to be profitable and to make the decisions that are best for their land and their families. We know that when agriculture...