Dallas Tonsager

No, no, the subject doesn’t have any connection to two children’s movies titled “Transformers” or “Toy Story”. It does, however, pertain to an engaging session that was held among South Dakota staff to broaden their understanding of cultural transformation. The sessions were led by two dynamic...

What started as an office meeting between USDA Rural Development Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager and Rev. David Zellmer, Bishop of the SD Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, regarding food ministry and feeding the hungry has flourished into meetings of constituents across the state of...

On a crisp, fall-like day in August, Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager travelled to Pennsylvania to tour two USDA funded facilities that are helping to reduce the amount of nutrients flowing into the Chesapeake Bay. The first stop on the tour was Windview Farm where owner Mac Curtis has revolutionized...

Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager spent a busy week recently traveling throughout the heartland as a part of President Obama’s Rural Tour. Under Secretary Tonsager attended a Rural Tour event in Iowa with President Obama and Secretary Vilsack, and then continued to South Dakota...

Last week Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager met with Twenty-two Utah business leaders for a White House Business Council roundtable. The meeting was hosted by Zions Bank Corporation and USDA Rural Development. Salt Lake City was one of the 100 communities across the...

As a farmer in eastern South Dakota, I witnessed one of the biggest growth periods in renewable energy in our country's history. I saw firsthand how the investments in biofuels benefited rural Americans by creating jobs and capturing wealth locally. Leaders in the community got together, made...

June is homeownership month -- an opportunity for us to highlight the important role housing plays in creating jobs, maintaining viable rural communities and contributing to the economy. Since the start of the current fiscal year, which began last October 1, USDA Rural Development has financed...

USDA Rural Development State Director Trina George and numerous local officials and leaders were in two Mississippi counties this spring to commemorate Earth Day and highlight USDA’s commitment to good environmental practices. State Director George met with officials of the Tallahala Water...

More than 1,300 community developers from 47 states converged on Des Moines, Iowa, this week to attend the 2011 National Main Streets Conference organized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. A key theme repeated during the conference illustrated how communities with healthy Main Street...

The state of Mississippi, recently hit with back-to-back disasters in the forms of record-intensity tornadoes in the eastern portion of the state and devastating floods in the Mississippi River Delta, was visited by two USDA under secretaries on Thursday. USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development...