small business

USDA’s continued commitment to broadening small business access to contract opportunities stimulates small business ownership and economic growth, creates jobs, and results in improving the quality of life across America. USDA currently awards over 52 percent of all contract dollars to small...

Recently USDA Rural Development Administrator for Business and Cooperative Programs Judith Canales joined Small Business Administration (SBA) officials in Syracuse, New York, to discuss opportunities to promote rural small business investment and job creation. The rural investment roundtable event...

Urban agriculture and gardening can be an important tool in confronting several key challenges that Americans face: from supporting farm viability in and around urban areas to improving access to healthful, affordable food to realizing the potential of rural-urban linkages.

I just went to the Capitol to hear the President address Congress about the way forward to grow the economy and create jobs. There is no doubt that these have been tough times. And it's very tough for the many Americans who are looking for work. So we’ve got to keep finding ways to help the...

Recent news tells us that the American economy is continuing to move in the right direction, creating private sector jobs for twelve months in a row. The health care law signed by President Obama last year, the Affordable Care Act, has done its part to increase economic certainty in rural America by...

As I have been discussing Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food with producers and local-food advocates across Iowa, one thing has become quite evident: access to capital is a huge barrier. In fact, at a meeting last month to develop an Iowa Food and Farm Plan that will be presented to the state...

On December 18, USDA Rural Development hosted a Jobs and Economy Roundtable discussion in Livingston, Montana in Park County. About 7,000 people live in Livingston, which has an unemployment rate of 7.9 percent. The local economy was once dominated by the railroad and agriculture, but in recent...