Skip to main content
Skip to main content

EPA


Farm to School Programs Can Get Kids Familiar with Healthy Foods

November 25, 2013 FNS Administrator, Audrey Rowe

October was National Farm to School Month and at FNS we ended on a high note. We released our very first nationwide assessment of farm to school activities and there was a lot of good news to be shared. The Farm to School Census showed that adoption of farm to school activities is trending up; many...

Food and Nutrition Farming

A New Partnership to Sack Food Waste

November 22, 2013 Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

Cross posted from the Dairy Good blog: Across the nation, Americans from all walks of life are taking steps to reduce the amount of food that goes to waste. Part of the solution lies in finding innovative new ways to use food that would otherwise by wasted. That’s where the Cleveland Browns, Ohio...

Initiatives Conservation Food and Nutrition

New Issue Papers: Exploring Environmental Markets

November 21, 2013 Kate Zook, Program Analyst, Office of the Chief Economist

All of us rely on nature’s benefits during our daily routines, but few stop to think about how we can sustain those benefits over time. Luckily, there are economists, resource managers, and policymakers working on tools to help manage resources—and environmental markets are one of those tools...

Conservation USDA Results

Drought Stricken Areas to Benefit from USDA, NOAA-Led Initiative

November 15, 2013 Beverly Moseley, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Texas

While addressing the effects of the 2012 drought, USDA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other federal partners are preparing proactively for the next one. As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, the Obama Administration today announced an interagency National...

Conservation

Engaging the Next Generation with the Help of our Partners in Conservation

November 07, 2013 Robert Bonnie and Rhea Suh

When President Obama launched the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative in 2010, one of the top priorities included connecting our youth and veterans to our nation’s cultural and natural resources. President Obama wanted to foster a new generation of stewards to carry on our nation’s proud...

Conservation

Local Food Makes the Grade: Farm to School and Beyond

October 28, 2013 Elanor Starmer, National Coordinator, Local and Regional Food Systems

If you are a regular USDA blog reader, you’ve heard about the new Farm to School Census, which shows the national farm to school footprint down to the school district level. With farm to school purchases topping $350 million across the country and over 38,000 schools nationwide participating in farm...

Food and Nutrition Farming

LED Lighting Improves Sustainability for Specialty-Crop Producers

September 24, 2013 Megan O’Reilly, National Institute of Food and Agriculture

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. For about 2,000 years – since Roman emperor Tiberius demanded fresh cucumbers for lunch year ‘round – farmers have been...

Energy Research and Science

USDA Talks Honeybees on Twitter

August 19, 2013 Sonny Ramaswamy, Director, National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Last week’s cover of TIME magazine featured a story about the rapid rate of decline of honeybee populations across the globe. The article focuses on the question of the price we’ll pay if we don’t figure out what is killing the honeybee. A daunting thought when you think about the fact that one...

Conservation

Texas Town Gets out the Arsenic with Help from USDA

August 01, 2013 Jacki Ponti-Lazaruk, Assistant Administrator, USDA Rural Utilities Service

Arsenic is poisonous. It is also just about everywhere, but it is especially prevalent in the groundwater of the Southwest. In the economically challenged City of Freer, Texas, citizens rely on the Freer Water Control and Improvement District (FWCID) to draw water from the underground Catahoula...

Rural

Reducing Food Waste: It's More Than Just Cleaning Your Plate

July 11, 2013 Robert Fireovid, ARS National Program Leader for Quality and Utilization of Agricultural Products

When you think of steps that can be taken to improve our environment and mitigate climate change, "reducing food waste" probably doesn't come to mind right away. But in fact, food waste is an important factor in climate change, because wasted food represents 20 percent by weight of the solid waste...

Conservation Food and Nutrition Research and Science
Subscribe to EPA

AskUSDA

One central entry point for you to access information and help from USDA.