Land Grant universities

July in America. It is summer time and school’s out. It is about vacations and maybe a trip to the beach. It is Independence Day—the 4 th of July—and parades and fireworks. It is about barbecues, hotdogs, and burgers. 2015 marks America’s 239 th birthday. July is also the month for another important...

USDA’s mission includes working with land grant universities, including minority serving institutions, to ensure continued education in agricultural is available to help fill anticipated demand for knowledgeable employees. Earlier this week, the Secretary signed an agreement continuing USDA’s...

Like many city kids growing up in Richmond, Va., Carolyn Brooks didn’t know much about agriculture and had never heard of 4-H. That changed quickly, however, as she was the first in her family to graduate from college—earning a B.S. and then a M.S. in biology from one of the foremost agricultural...

Educators from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories recently met in Arlington, Virginia to discuss local implementation of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), one of the nation’s largest nutrition education programs. Through nutrition education...

February is traditionally a month of celebration for our nation’s 1890 land-grant universities (LGUs) in commemoration of Black History Month. These institutions are historically-black universities that were established in 1890 under the Second Morrill Act. Now, as the month draws to an end, the...

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. Low prices for commodity crops are never good for agricultural producers. But for small farmers, many of whom already depend...

February 7 marks the first anniversary of the Agriculture Act of 2014, commonly known as the 2014 Farm Bill. This milestone provides an opportunity to report on the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) efforts during the last year to implement the many provisions of relevance to the...

Shortly after taking office, I joined other Cabinet officials on a visit to rural Southwest Alaska. We met with Alaska Native leaders and heard firsthand the difficulties facing Native Americans living in small communities in remote, rural areas. Since that time, this administration has worked each...

This is the eighteenth installment of the Organic 101 series that explores different aspects of the USDA organic regulations. Consumer demand for organic products continues to grow across the country, representing a $35 billion dollar industry in 2013. To meet this demand, USDA has initiated a...

If you work outside, you care about the weather. But if your business depends on the weather, you should care about the climate. Those of us who have lived in the Northeast for years know that something is up with the weather. It’s more changeable; too wet one month, too dry the next. Spring is...