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Access to stores that carry healthy, affordable food can play an important role in people’s nutrition and overall health. Ensuring access to healthy food is a priority for USDA and a key component of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative.

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA's rich science and research profile. 2013 is the International Year of Statistics. As part of this global event, every month this year USDA’s National Agricultural...

It’s February 14 th and love is in the air. This year more than half of us – nearly 60 percent according to the National Retail Federation – will celebrate Valentine’s Day in many different ways. But what do you get that special someone? If you need some ideas, you may not need to look any further...

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA's rich science and research profile. In 2011, close to 15 percent of U.S. households had trouble meeting their food needs. This phenomenon is known as food...

Clay Blackburn is a 25-year-old Missouri farmer who works several part-time jobs to keep his cow/calf operation growing. He currently leases 200 acres of land until he can build enough capital to buy. “It’s tough for a young person to get started in farming,” said Blackburn. “Finding land is the...

USDA programs have targeted assistance to beginning farmers and ranchers since the 1992 Agricultural Credit Improvement Act. Farms or ranches are considered “beginning” if the operators have managed them for 10 years or less. The Economic Research Service has looked at the trend in numbers of...

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA's rich science and research profile. With restaurant and take-out meals an everyday occurrence for many, the choices we make when eating out can have a big impact...

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. Many of our diets aren’t what they should be. Americans eat fewer fruits and vegetables than Federal nutrition guidance...

Rob Green’s recent Wall Street Journal op-ed “The cause of higher grocery bills isn’t the drought. It’s the failed federal ethanol policy” fails to take into consideration a host of factors, other than demand for corn, that affect food prices. In the domestic and global markets commodity, labor...

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA's rich science and research profile. Interest in local and regional food systems has expanded in recent years. The evidence is everywhere: from the number of...